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Title: Time to Hunt (2020)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Lee Jehoon | ... | Jun Seok | |
| Jae-hong Ahn | ... | Jang Ho | |
| Woo-sik Choi | ... | Ki Hoon | |
| Jung-min Park | ... | Sang Soo | |
 |
Hae-soo Park | ... | Han |
| Greg Chun | ... | Jun-Seok (voice) | |
| Johnny Yong Bosch | ... | Ki-Hoon (voice) | |
| Keong Sim | ... | Han (voice) | |
|
|
Stephen Fu | ... | Sang-Soo (voice) |
| Christopher Sean | ... | Additional Voices (voice) | |
| David Chen | ... | Additional Voices (voice) | |
| Judy Alice Lee | ... | Additional Voices (voice) | |
| Kaiji Tang | ... | Additional Voices (voice) | |
| Matthew Yang King | ... | Additional Voices (voice) (as Matt Yang King) | |
| Stephanie Sheh | ... | Additional Voices (voice) | |
In the dystopian South Korea, Jun Seok gets out of prison for a previous heist he and his friends had messed up, and the currency (the Korean won) has crashed massively, making the haul of their last job effectively worthless. Jun Seok proposes one last heist to his best friends Jang Ho and Ki Hoon, in order for the trio to escape from their miserable situations. Their target is an illegal gambling house, which stores hefty stacks of US dollars. The trio recruits Sang Soo, who currently works in the gambling house. After getting firearms from Bong Shik, a friend Jun Seok knew in prison, the quartet proceeds with the heist, which finishes messy but successful. They take a large sum of cash and the gambling house's surveillance hard drives, which contain footage of shady dealings between the gambling house's owners and various criminals. The loss of the surveillance hard drives made the gambling house's owners unhappy. They recruit killer Han to track the quartet and retrieve the hard ... Written by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_Hunt_(film)
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"Hell Joseon" A popular term that was used by South Koreans (mostly by teenagers and youths) to criticize the socioeconomic situation due to its high employment and harsh working conditions in society. Time to Hunt, directed and written by Yoon Sung-hyun, built the film into a dystopian setting through this concept, during which South Korea is experiencing financial collapse. In the meantime, Jun-seok (Lee Je-hoon), who was just released from prison, proposes to his 3 friends - Jang-ho (Ahn Jae-hong), Ki-hoon (Choi Woo-sik), and Sang-soo (Park Jun-min) - to commit robbery in order to escape from their miserable situation.
Yoon Sung-hyun had previously shown his directing abilities in Bleak Night (2010), a film that really grips my attention despite its limited budget and mundane settings. In Time to Hunt, Sung-hyun increased the budget and upgraded its settings to build a more complex world. Yet, he surprisingly shows consistency in directing this complicated film, especially in building tension. Combined with Lim Won-geun's camerawork and dark, stylistic production design, Sung-hyun produced countless scenes where I would just be on the edge of my seat, waiting for the unexpected to come. I would say my favorite scene is the heist itself, which is the epitome of an ideal heist in reality as it includes the emotional states of characters in a very realistic way.
The characters itself are the highlight of the film. While it never really dives deep into the characteristics, it slowly reveals more of their personality and backstory at the right time (without using flashbacks), causing us to be more emotionally attached to them. The way the group interacts with each other is especially the reason why they are appealing and likable. There is not one moment where we believe that their interactions are unnatural. Added with the main characters' performance and chemistry, Sung-hyun has created a standard that should be imitated for other writers (and filmmakers) on how to make natural yet memorable character interactions.
While the film characters are its significant advantage, its story becomes its downfall. I am personally very hooked to the film's first half, which introduced its bizarre settings of South Korea and how the economy really changes social life. However, it never expands more since then, focusing on the chase in the second half. It's a disappointment as I was thoroughly engaged with the setting it presented, prompting questions about the reasons behind it. Sure, I believe that Sung-hyun had his own intentions, but the half-hearted presentation just falls into dissatisfaction. The story inconsistency also clearly presented itself beginning with the second half, thanks to a character decision that just seems to prolong the film length without any much justification.
As I have said before, the characters are the highlight of the film. However, this does not extend to the villain as the character felt very one dimensional, having no basis in his/her personality. This makes the character truly heartless and highlights that his presence is only there to heighten the film's tension. Some of the characters' resolve also felt unsatisfying, bringing another disappointment to the film's resolution, failing to end it on a good note without setting it up for another sequel.
Overall, Time to Hunt truly shows Yoon Sung-hyun's skills as a director that specializes in tension and creates the main characters as a highlight thanks to the actors' performances and chemistry. However, its script-writing is a disappointment when compared to Sung-hyun's previous film, wasting all the potential in the second half and its supporting characters. However, Time to Hunt is still undeniably an entertaining watch for audiences finding a thriller with gripping characters.