Time to Hunt (2020) Review

“Time to Hunt” Theatrical Poster

Director: Yoon Sung-hyun
Cast: Lee Je-Hoon, Choi Woo-Sik, Ahn Jae-hong, Park Jung-Min, Park Hae-Soo, Cho Seong-Ha, Choi Hee-Do, Jeon Woon-Jong, Won-hae Kim, Kang Ji-Gu 
Running Time: 134 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

Prior to its release, Korean production Time to Hunt was one of the prime examples of a movie impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for a cinematic release in February, it was quickly pulled due to the lockdown that was implemented while Korea dealt with the peak of its outbreak. Producer Little Big Pictures subsequently struck a deal with Netflix, which would have seen it hit on April 10th for 190 countries. This release was delayed when the international sales representative, Contents Panda, filed an injunction due to already making distribution deals with over 30 of those countries themselves. A Korean court ruled in favour of Contents Panda, and thankfully both parties were able to come to a mutual agreement, resulting in an international Netflix release on April 23rd. A happy ending for all involved.

While we’ve had to wait a little under 2 weeks to finally watch Time to Hunt, for fans of director Yoon Sung-hyun, we’ve had to wait 10 years since the release of his 2010 debut, Bleak Night, a refreshingly accomplished film-academy graduation project. Bleak Night focused on the dynamics of its three male leads, in a masterful tale that plays backwards from when one of them commits suicide, and Time to Hunt maintains the core theme of friendship between three male leads. Like in Bleak Night, Sung-hyun again enlists Lee Je-hoon as his lead. Je-hoon has gone on to become a leading man himself in the decade since, headlining the likes of historical drama Anarchist from Colony and pulp noir Phantom Detective, so it’s a welcome sight to see the pair re-team as director and star for Sung-hyun’s sophomore go in the director’s chair.

Time to Hunt takes place in a not-too-distant future Korea, but to call it a sci-fi doesn’t feel appropriate. The Korea portrayed here is far removed from the futuristic visions seen in the likes of Yesterday and Natural City. Instead we’re introduced to a dystopian Korea, its booming economy a distant memory, left with a currency that’s hardly worth the paper it’s printed on. Seoul has become a shadow of its former self, the once bustling buildings becoming dilapidated, and everything shrouded in a constant smog that clings to the ground. Homelessness is everywhere, and whole blocks that used to be full of local businesses are now boarded up and derelict, a layer of grime caked to the city. It’s a unique landscape for Korean cinema, and not a vision of Seoul many directors would dare to imagine, perhaps because it echoes the upheaval the country went through during the 70’s aggressive push to modernise.

We meet Je-hoon as he’s released from a 3-year stint in prison for robbery, a crime he committed with his brothers in arms, played by Choi Wooshik (Parasite, The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion) and Ahn Jae-hong (Fabricated City, Missing You). When the trio reunite Je-hoon is keen to get his hands on the stash they got away with 3 years ago, but with the currency devalued to the point that most places only accept US dollars, it turns out there’s hardly anything left. With a dream to escape to rural Taiwan and live the simple life, Je-hoon convinces the pair to pull off one last job – an illegal casino which is run by gangsters. Another of their friends works for the casino, played by Park Jung-Min (who also starred in Bleak Night, and can be more recently seen in Tazza: One Eyed Jack and Svaha: The Sixth Finger), so together the quartet put the wheels in motion to execute the perfect heist.

When you think of Korean heist flicks, the breezy capers like The Thieves and The Swindlers may be the ones that come to mind, but Sung-hyun keeps things a world away from those glossy outings. The approach here can almost be described as lo-fi, with the camera more interested in the emotions of the characters than the intricacies of the heist itself. It’s a sweaty, adrenaline pumping sequence, one which has faint echoes of the heist from Michael Mann’s Heat (the part before everything goes to hell), as the dash to get their hands on the money locked away in the safe plays out against a small window of time. Sung-hyun shows himself to be a master of ramping up the tension is this scene, as the sense of the characters battling not to panic is a tangible one, and that tension is built upon as events progress.

Indeed the heist turns out to only be the trigger for what Time to Hunt is really about. Having also taken the casinos hard drives, so any footage that may have captured their faces can be destroyed, it turns out the drives contain a lot more than just security footage. With files containing details of money laundering schemes and the names of the powerful people who have a hand in them, a bounty hunter is called in to track them down. Played by Park Hae-soo (Master, Pirates), his character steals the show, and turns the narrative into an entertainingly different direction that feels like a cross between The Terminator and The Hitcher. Sung-hyun’s use of light and shadow gives an almost noir style look, with parts of Hae-soo’s frame always partially obscured in darkness, making him feel like an almost supernatural force that’s after our protagonists.

Time to Hunt’s bait and switch reveals itself to be an unpretentious chase flick, as Je-hoon, Wooshik, and Jae-hong find themselves pursued through the desolate streets of a near-future Korea by a ruthless hunter, one who seems to firmly believe that the thrill is in the chase. Far from becoming an action thriller though, what transpires feels much more like a horror movie, as Hae-soo’s relentless pursuing through the night results in some genuinely tense setups. As a comparison, think The Terminator compared to Terminator 2. The first was a gritty chase flick that often felt like a horror. The second was also a chase flick, but felt more about the excitement than it did the tension. Sung-hyun’s focus here seems to be purely on how much tension he can wring out of each scene, and he does the job well, backed up by a pulsating synthesiser score that perfectly complements the narrative.

The other element that deserves a mention is the decision to include guns, lots of guns. Korean society has very strict gun laws, which is also reflected in its cinematic output. Korean gangster movies usually involve a lot of blood-soaked stabbings, beatings with steel poles, and plenty of grievous bodily harm, but rarely does anyone pull out a gun. Sung-hyun takes advantage of the near-future setting to create a Korea where it’s possible to acquire firearms through underground dealers, and as a result the duration of Time to Hunt is spent with almost every character running around with automatic weapons and shotguns. It’s a decision which sees Time to Hunt feature some worthy shootouts. Like the heist, they may be more lo-fi than gratuitous and bombastic, but the scenes fit the overall feel, and bring with them a legitimate sense of danger from every bullet fired.

If any criticism could be levelled against Sung-hyun’s latest, it’s that it’s a tad overlong, and could have benefitted from a little trimming. Particularly in the epilogue, a poignant imagined scene is extended in a way which doesn’t make complete sense, but again it’s not the first time for Sung-hyun to keep things intentionally ambiguous. Time to Hunt is also the first movie I’ve seen for a long time which has literally no key female cast members. Apart from Wooshik’s Mum who receives less than 5 minutes of screen time, this is very much a male dominated movie. While I have no issue with it myself, I’m sure there’ll be viewers out there who’d have liked to have seen a little bit of female representation.

These are minor gripes though, and after waiting for a decade Sung-hyun has proven himself as a director that can mix creativity with characterisation, and style as well as substance. I’ll call it early and say that Time to Hunt may be my favorite Korean movie of 2020, and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be a gritty chase movie through a dystopian vision of Korea. I only hope we don’t have to wait another 10 years for Sung-hyun’s next movie.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10