‘Time To Hunt’ is a Korean film that was set to be released in February but because of COVID-19 it was delayed and eventually picked up by Netflix. There it was released in April.
In essence, ‘Time To Hunt’ is a heist movie in an apocalyptic South Korea. The country is in huge debt to the IMF and due to huge inflation the Korean won is pretty much useless. The banks have all closed and people are suffering heavily. The homelessness is huge and everyone is struggling to survive.
The characters
That’s where our main characters come in. Jun-seok, played by Lee Je-hoon who you might know from the K-drama ‘Signal’ and his two best friends Jang-ho and Ki-hoon, played respectively by Ahn Jae-hong and Choi Woo-shik. Ahn Jae-hong played in the K-drama ‘Fight For My Way’ and Choi Woo-shik was the main character in ‘Parasite’.
In ‘Time To Hunt’ we see Jun-seok come out of prison because of a jewelry heist gone wrong so the three friends are not unfamiliar with the law. He dreams of moving to Taiwan to see the beaches and live a good life in the sun. It makes sense, considering the entirety of South Korea is covered in smoke.
They decided to do one last big score which isn’t necessarily new or groundbreaking but nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed the heist itself. They decide to rob a gambling den where a childhood friend of theirs works. Beyond that I don’t really want to give away too much of the plot.
Suspense and Smoke
The director Yoon Sung-Hyun also wrote the script and honestly kudos to him. Though I would have liked to see more of the friends’ shared history, the story itself was really solid. Yoon Sung-Hyun did an amazing job with the tension and the prolonged fight scenes. The movie is quite long, just over two hours. The suspense, the fact that I was so enthralled and rooting for our main characters, the action scenes those are all highlights of ‘Time To Hunt’.
Another key factor to the film was the cinematography and the lighting. The entire city is covered is smoke and at one point to smoke turns to an orange/reddish hue and it was so dope to see.
Overall
If you enjoy heist and action films, make sure to give this one a go. It’s a solid story with some great cinematography and fantastic acting.
Two of the actors are nominated for a Baeksang Art Award and that’s a pretty big deal.
Here’s the trailer:
