‘Time to hunt’ is a K-drama with a twist
If Parasite taught the world anything, it’s that Korean cinema isn’t just one thing. From social commentary (Parasite) to zombie apocalypse (Train to Busan), to crime thrillers and heist films — it’s not all kilig K-dramas.
Director Yoon Sung-hyun’s latest film Time to Hunt, now showing on Netflix, dips deep into the vast trove of “heist” classics to add a few twists. Starring a young male cast (Lee Je-hoon, Ahn Jae-hong, Choi Woo-shik, Park Jeong-min and Park Hae-soo), it’s kind of the old staple of the guy who gets out of prison and convinces his old barkada to pull off “one last job” so they can retire to some mythical beach paradise (supposedly in Taiwan).
The difference is, when Jong-seok (Lee Je-hoon) walks out of prison, his country has gone to the dogs: you’ve never seen a more rundown, dystopian Seoul onscreen. There’s nobody in the streets. It’s like Chernobyl or any major city currently under COVID lockdown. An economic meltdown has shrunk the won, even as the US dollar triumphs. Time to Hunt mixes this sci-fi dystopia with about two or three other genres (Korean cinema is pretty skillful at this), and even if it doesn’t quite reinvent the “heist film” wheel, it adds some nice inversions.
Je-hoon is sympathetic as a man with a plan, though he, like his fellow gang members, is more bluff than actual experience. At the beginning, they spout American hip-hop clichés and parade around in faux gangsta fashion — Nike caps, Adidas jackets, Stusi shirts — but when they set their sights on knocking over a casino house that’s run by actual gangsters, they’re way out of their depth.
You’ve seen this type of film before: Tony Scott’s True Romance comes to mind, in which Christian Slater makes off with a pimp’s suitcase full of money, then finds himself on the run from mobsters Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini and other heavies. Callow youth soon realizes that real bad guys are actually bad: not play-acting.
But Time to Hunt soon shifts to another genre: the “unstoppable killer” we’ve come to know from No Country for Old Men, schlock thrillers like The Hitcher and even James Cameron’s Terminator. We don’t know why gun-for-hire Han (Park Hae-soo) is methodically tracking these young guys through most of the film, but it’s enough to watch their dynamic unravel, their bonds get blown to bits as the relentless pursuit continues.
Time to Hunt channels another genre — the gun-toting action thriller, complete with gun-porn shots, the stock dismantling-and-cleaning-your-weapon sequence, the obligatory squib explosions and overkill as bodies dance around, pumped with bullets like Scarface — yet, even though director Sung-hyun almost self-consciously channels all these action motifs, what makes Time to Hunt most memorable is the gradual dismantling of Jong-seok’s barkada, how friendship becomes almost a liability, something that has to be traded off for mere survival.
We shot questions to the cast members and director of Time to Hunt. Here’s a quick look.
Time to Hunt gives off a Chernobyl or wasteland kind of vibe. The streets are virtually empty. Obviously, you filmed before COVID-19 and all the social distancing, so what did you want to convey through this?
Director Yoon Sung-Hyun: When we were first making the film, that was when the phrase “Hell Joseon” first came about in Korea. (“Hell Korea,” reflecting the youth’s anxieties about jobs and working conditions.) So I thought, “Oh yeah? You want to see a real hell? I’ll show them what true hell looks like in a dystopian world.” But I don’t think you can call this a sci-fi movie. I think I wanted the space to be interpreted as an allegorical space. When I was doing research for slum areas, in places like South America, I visited a few countries there and I was really shocked. The atmosphere of the slum areas, the air of spaces where the value of money has been destroyed — these had a big impact. I tried to reference a lot of those areas that I thought were most likely to be what Korea could be if such things happened here. And because they were slums, I set them to be places with little foot traffic.
A lot of the destructed spaces are in fact so-called new towns, and we tried to use artistic variation (and CG) to bring that to life.
As for “Hell Joseon,” I would use the phrase too, and even then, I knew it wasn’t really “hell.” But I related to what it meant. It was an emotional term, so I thought that it would be fun to create a movie that visualized the term. And I thought that the biggest keyword among young people of today was “survival,” and that I wanted to unravel that in a simple storyline against a hellish background. It was simple as that at first. So I wanted to adequately convey those factors and emotions felt by today’s youth. The lonesome struggle to survive — of course not to the extent of our film, but at least on an emotional level — I think it’s quite similar to the struggle and challenges the young people of today have in order to survive.
Time to Hunt made it to the Berlin Film Festival. Were you pleased?
The film is so clearly genre-driven, with a lot of crime/thriller elements of a caper movie at the beginning, transitions into suspense-driven middle part, and becomes a complete Western film towards the very end — so considering the amalgamation of these genres, I didn’t even dream of going to the Berlin Film Festival.
Unfortunately, due to what’s happening around the world, the Berlin Film Festival was the last festival we attended as all the others have been canceled or postponed, but I hope that the situation improves soon so that the film can be screened again.
Lee Je-hoon, you play Joon-seok, the leader of the heist barkada. How did you relate to his character?
Lee Je-hoon: Before I read the script, director Yoon told me, “I wrote the character ‘Jun-seok’ for you,” so I didn’t notice any particular difference between the character and myself. I could slip into the character as if he was me, although being a leader among a group of friends and taking the lead is something I grew out of over the years—but I think I was more like that in elementary and middle school. That’s why being surrounded by the cast members often reminded me of my school days. Rather than studying and analyzing the character, I focused on how much back-and-forth interaction I could have with the actors, expressing the emotions of someone being hunted, and “how much I can push myself” to express the fear of someone being completely cornered.
What was your favorite action scene?
When the group becomes aware of being chased by Han (the killer) and the sequence where they are trying to leave the underground parking lot in the car — this was a detail-packed scene that took a long time to shoot. So I was really nervous, and even though it was freezing, the moment we went into action, I could feel my body heat up. But when you’re face to face with Han, holding the cold, heavy dark gun, the only thing that comes to mind is, “Oh, I’m about to die.”
I think there were only about two shots fired, but the tension was definitely extreme.
Choi Woo-shik, your character Ki-hoon is someone who wants to help his parents, but also prove himself to Jong-seok and the other guys. How did you approach him as a character?
Choi Woo-shik: He’s a rebel—he’s rebellious, but he always takes care of his family and friends, which is very sweet. I think that’s an admirable characteristic.
Which other character would you have liked to play?
I would love to play the character Han. He’s such a mysterious character that possesses such a powerful presence. I’d like to create a character that is completely appalling to the extent that it would make the audience tremble.
Park Hae-soo, you play Han, the robotic killer. Did you reference any other villains in cinema?
Park Hae-soo: I didn’t reference a particular film, but the director and I did talk about Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men for minor references in some aspects. Aside from that, I think I tried to shape the character within our story through discussions with the director, rather than from other films. I do think Han has some intriguing aspects to him—he is quite mysterious, and that’s an interesting side of this character.
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Catch Time to Hunt on Netflix.
