korean action movies hunt is not a comedy. This is a bloody spy movie with deadly stakes, full of bloody conflict and grotesque torture. The stellar action sequences make it clear that no one is having fun in this political showdown. All major players are fueled by a self-righteous belief that only they can save their country and government, and the atrocities they commit in pursuit of it. Goals are valid and justified.
But back-and-forth conflicts between factions become so complicated that even the agents who show up at the scene of the latest conflict don’t always know what’s going on, so the way it all works out still has a sarcastic sense of humor. the side they are on. squid game Starring Lee Jung-jae, making his directorial debut and starring as one of the two main leads, reaches out to reveal that this whole political game is a bit of a farce. Rarely. It’s a deadly game played by paranoid and violent people. It’s time to laugh.
Lee stars as Park Pyung-ho, the chief of the KCIA Foreign Forces, South Korea’s foreign intelligence agency. Chief His Kim Jong-do (Jung Woo-sung) is his counterpart and head of the KCIA’s domestic division. In theory, they share the same goal and work together to protect the president, a notorious and brutal dictator. (The film is set in a fictional version of the 1980s, Great upheaval and rebellion When an assassin targets the president while visiting Washington, DC, Park and Kim are informed that there are North Korean agents somewhere in the KCIA, and they launch separate investigations to track down the traitor.
The plot becomes so complex that new revelations, developments, and shifting allegations conflict with hordes of functionally identical black-suited KCIA agents, especially in the very fast-paced and action-oriented early stages. can be difficult to understand when feeding into Suspects are captured and tortured, rescued and traded, guarded and murdered.An Agency turns itself on and its two leaders manipulate the system to answer a series of leaders with different goals. will do.
At times, the crisis of the moment seems particularly inconsequential than the McGuffins characters are chasing in certain sequences of Star Wars movies. With each new turn of events, whether it be a replacement, a key witness in a coma, or money laundering by a dubious company, it’s almost always Kim and Park taking on new actions and refining their theories about who is who. It works as an excuse. condemnation. but, hunt Focused as a cat-and-mouse game between two men who accuse each other and try to find evidence, the stakes gradually narrow and become very personal. starts as untouchableThe violence of the style opera turns into a bitter spy drama about how far people will go for their beliefs.
Seen only as an action movie, hunt One of the most exciting and terrifying experiences of 2022. Lee uses that early assassination attempt as a calling card to establish his credentials as a shootout choreographer and ensure his audience is in competent and ambitious hands. The whole film is a tug-of-war between sympathy and suspicion, with both sides committing horrific deeds in the name of truth. They take it for granted that they are likely to be arrested, tortured and murdered for their own convenience. It’s a bitter take on the spy story, where there isn’t much wish-fulfilling heroism, and no overblown James Bonds – just bloody officers gambling for survival. perform, but keep rolling back to remind the audience of the human cost.
But in the end hunt It also made for a striking piece of drama and characters — one whose emotions are oversized and exaggerated, expressed as much through explosions as it is dialogue, yet it’s still a story more about the people than the regime. Lee, who plays a tightly controlled leader who is too far away squid game Sad-sack Song Ki-hoon keeps his cards close to his chest for much of the film, but his desperation and conviction leak out as his options narrow. Jung is a perfect match for him as Kim, a more volatile character willing to sacrifice humanity for convenience, but still driven by convictions.
part of what you make hunt The job is that you don’t exactly choose between them. This is not a simple good guy/bad guy story. It’s about the limited options for both citizens and enforcers in a fascist regime, and the limits to which it drives them. Looking for every possible path. Not only does it set them against each other, it also makes them more alike in more ways than they would like to admit. The real casualty here was caught in a shootout Given that we’re people, the results are intense, compelling, and sometimes hard to watch. hunt is a must see. tone and execution squid gamebut it is also a murderous battle for supremacy whose outcome is never clear.
hunt is playing in a limited theatrical release and is available for streaming rental. Amazon, buduand other digital outlets.