Time to Hunt

I consider myself a fan of Korean cinema. Annually they release two or three cinematographic jewels that go unnoticed by the majority of the population. I expected more from this film, the script did nothing to develop a better plot, since between jumps the message is lost. At the end of the day, I do not know if there will be a sequel, since the end it's open, but I doubt it. Also, not knowing what exactly happened to Ki-hoon, after having him in front of the cameras throughout the entire movie, does not help to close the story. Although we assume it happened to him. In the end, I'm not quite sure if Jun-seok will become a Han in the future or if he would return to Korea to face Han, if he survived, like that guy say. I give it a 7, because the colors and the camera shots of the director are exceptional. Nothing else.

KOREAN HEAT

Within the sweaty, blood-smeared constraints of Yoon's hugely contrived narrative, though, the film does succeed as a slice of high-calibre, testosterone-fuelled escapism

A tour-de-force exercise in non-stop tension.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR ACTION FANS.

Yoon Sung-hyun's 'Time to Hunt' is a solid (and loud) crime thriller that unfortunately winds up being semi-unmemorable due to the weak writing of its conflicts and characters.

Finally on Netflix after the resolution of the rights issue, Time to Hunt sadly proves itself an example of a movie good on paper but pretty much disappointing once made.

'Cause it reveals itself to be just an exercise in style over substance, very very intriguing and convincing visually (thanks to a dark, atmospheric cinematography and to the wonderful production design creating a city that it's almost as gloomy, "claustrophobic" and oppressing as the Blade Runner's one), but very very disappointing narratively.

A mediocre movie that it's also totally self-indulgent in its "enormous" runtime, which is clearly unjustified given the thinness of the plot. Time to Hunt ultimately it's just an ordinary caper and chase action movie that it's content in basically jump back and forth between one location and the other, maybe to show off the results reached in the production design and special effects departments thanks, we should suppose, to a more robust budget than usual. And, not surprisingly, said locations are usually pretty much evocative, even though they are not exactly original (to make a couple of examples: look at the almost nightmarish dark and empty hospital or at the giant palaces encircled by rampant weed...). The problem is that the movie as a whole well, it's not. It's not very evocative, or very interesting for that matter. It's just frustrating.

The heist sequence manages to pump up the rhythm for a while (even though it's almost implausible), but from there on the movie keeps on going following the predictable "run-bad guy arrives-another furious run" scheme that wears out pretty soon. And so monotony prevails. (And, by the way, the movie could have concluded after the first run, but for some reasons: SPOILER: the villain lets the guys escape, 'cause he finds it really, really amusing END OF SPOILER).

Matter of fact, all the characters seem condemned to do all the bad decisions possible (they don't turn off cellphones, they separate with no logical reason whatsoever etc. etc.), the villain is of course indestructible like Terminator and, well, the so-called ending manages to definitely drag the movie down ('cause it's actually a cliffhanger and 'cause it's just stupid).

So, to conclude I'd say that Time to Hunt it's a disappointing feature (but, if you reached this point, I guess you already grasped that). A shallow movie that wastes the talents involved (the actors, the director, the director of photography, the production designer). It's happy in just offering us mediocre entertainment while it could have been much, much more.

Time To Hunt: A near future Dystopic South Korea, a crook is released from prison and discovers the money from his last heist is worthless due to inflation. He plans a heist at a casino with friends to fund an escape from SK. Very much like The Last Days Of American Crime in set up and plot development. An interesting story is padded out by an overlong running time of 134 minutes. Some pretty good gunfights, well choreographed, car chases a mysterious assassin who is hired to eliminate the gang. This would have made a tight gangster thriller at 90 minutes. Directed & Written by Yoon Sung-hyun. On Netflix. 6/10.