Sword's Edge

RPGs, Movies, Comics, y'know: nerd stuff!

Time to Hunt: A Review

This review was first presented on my Patreon.

I had the chance to catch the new South Korean thriller, Time to Hunt, on Netflix this week. 

The plot, as summarized on Rotten Tomatoes is:

In a hopeless dystopian city, Jun-seok (LEE Je-hoon) is released from prison and plans his next step in life in order to start anew with his friends Jang-ho (AHN Jae-hong), Ki-hoon (CHOI Woo-shik) and Sang-soo (PARK Jeong-min). But their excitement for the plan is short-lived as an unknown man chases after them. Can these best friends get away from the hunt?

The story is actually pretty generic when one breaks it down. The “plan” involves the robbery of an illegal casino. Up until then, the most outstanding part of the movie was the setting and atmosphere. This isn’t a science-fiction movie per se, but it’s definitely set at some point in the future. 

The South Korea of this film is hopeless, mostly abandoned, covered in constant smog, and depopulated. I think anyone will be affected by the setting presented in the film, but if you’ve actually lived in South Korea, especially in a major urban centre, the shots of block after block of empty streets and abandoned stores have a very visceral impact.

The hunt of the title and synopsis has an assassin chasing after the young friends, and the tension gets dialled up to 11. I’m not necessarily a huge thriller fan, but have seen more than a few. Time to Hunt definitely delivers both the thrills in moments of kinetic energy but even more on the anxiety and pressure leading to those explosions. 

I would recommend Time to Hunt and give it 4 bullet-riddled bodies out of 5. This is a thrilling and tense movie with solid performances in a story that has few real surprises but serves as the vehicle to deliver its promise.