Hunt

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HUNT

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source: Hunt

source: Heon-teu

"Park" (director Lee Jung-Jae) and "Kim" (Jung Woo-sung) run the foreign and domestic teams of the South Korean equivalent of the CIA when an attempt is made to assassinate their President whilst on a trip to Washington DC. This politician came to power in a coup, in the 1980s, and he has no shortage of enemies. As the story develops, we discover that there is enormous pressure on these men to find out how the would-be killers knew so much about their boss's itinerary. Is there a mole - the legendary "Donglim", and could he/she have infiltrated their organisation? Pretty soon, a climate of fear and angry competition causes these two men to come to loggerheads as they try to detect the spy and keep their jobs, and they resort to ever more unscrupulous and violent means to achieve their goal before a summit in Bangkok. As is so often the case when an actor directs a film, the production can lack for an objective eye. The story really loses it's way once or twice as the investigations progress. I found it quite difficult to follow who was doing what to whom; who was on whose team and the pace was really quite sluggish at times. There is a great deal of dialogue but none of that really serves to build the characters into people in whom we could readily invest, and there are a couple of cluttering sub-plots that make little sense, or add much richness, until right at the very end. That ending has a twist that, though intriguing, is a bit contrived and I found rather implausible and I am afraid that I left the cinema underwhelmed.

Lee Jung Jae did not disappoint! I never imagined a fast paced action thriller like that to be directed by a noob director. And I could never have imagined that Lee has a knack on staging amazing action scenes. It felt like watching a Hollywood movie. Despite some confusing storytelling in the beginning (or maybe because I wasn't paying much attention in the first few minutes) it's impossible to not be entertained and be engrossed by this movie. Finding Donglim isn't easy as well, you might even make a few wrong guesses yourself but unraveling Donglim isn't as shocking as watching the finale unfold before your eyes.

Lee Jung-jae's directorial debut is a fast-paced, high-stakes thriller that proves the man is a capable director as well as being a charismatic actor. He is paired with Jung Woo-sung for an intense and increasingly crazy cat'n'mouse chase for an elusive spy. So this film begins rather chaotically, featuring two shootouts in the first half hour already, letting you know this isn't gonna be a slow-burn spy thriller. In fact, it keeps moving forward at such high speeds that you just can't catch your breath unless you take a break. It's essentially a series of confrontations (verbal and armed) that keep escalating until the rather exciting finale. Jung and Lee try to outsmart and outmaneuver each other while putting many innocent people in harm's way, which is one of the more intriguing themes in the film. They're both amoral to a certain degree, but also understanding of each other, and that lends the film a gritty Heat/Raging Fire vibe. The plot here is concerned with a potential invasion by North Korea via a team of spies who are waiting for the right chance to strike. Lee and Jung's characters are chiefs of Domestic and Foreign Units in the KCIA, tasked with finding out the identity of one of those spies who's infiltrated in the organization. What ensues is a series of dynamic shifts in the organization and revelations that will result in a fierce battle for survival. The Jung/Lee relationship is a highlight in more dramatic scenes, with the viewer unsure who to trust as both act suspiciously throughout the film. When it comes to action (and there's a lot of it), hats off to Lee for staging some pretty intense shootouts in mostly open areas. These sequences are not terribly long, but they're expertly crafted and common throughout. To summarize, Hunt is a very entertaining, action-packed political thriller similar to the likes of Steel Rain, but more morally ambiguous than usual in the genre. It's also convoluted and sometimes hard to follow, but never less than compelling.