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Director Yoon Sung-hyun (Netflix) |
After a two-month delay brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the announcement of a global release deal and subsequent legal wrangling, director Yoon Sung-hyun’s second feature, “Time to Hunt,” was finally released on Netflix on Thursday.
“Although it is sad that I’m presenting my second piece in nine years’ time and I wish I could have returned earlier, I’m just happy that I can finally meet the audience,” Yoon said at an online press conference Monday.
Yoon, who debuted in 2011 with the highly acclaimed drama “Bleak Night,” said his latest film is a continuation of his narrative about the doomed reality of today’s youths. But this time, it is being told with more dynamic cinematic elements.
“A few years ago, when I was writing the script, there was a trend of young Koreans comparing Korean society to hell. I wanted to visualize that emotion and the urge for survival into a cinematic form,” Yoon said.
“Time to Hunt” is an action thriller about four young men trying to survive in the South Korea of the near future, a society that is completely destroyed after a catastrophic financial crisis. While robbing an illegal casino to get the money they need to flee the country, the four men are suddenly chased by a mysterious killer.
“All the films I make, even the short films, are focused on people. So this time, I wanted to rely less on conversations and more on visual elements,” Yoon said.
While “Bleak Night” was a hyper-real portrayal of relationships between young teenage boys in their daily lives, “Time to Hunt” takes place in a society born of Yoon’s imagination, one that blends elements of fantasy and realism.
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A scene from “Time to Hunt” (Netflix) |
“It was difficult to define the tone and manner of the film, especially the artistic elements. Such films are not common in the Korean film scene and it was like hitting a stone with an egg,” Yoon said. “Searching for a space unfamiliar to the audience, we found a new town and built our set there.”
The director, who said the film would be nothing without the sound effects and music, got K-pop artist Primary to be the film’s music director.
“I had always wanted to work with Primary. However, I was worried about how well he would cover the huge spectrum of sound required by the film as he is a pop music artist. I was very surprised by how much effort he put into learning about producing film music and consequently expanded his musical abilities,” Yoon said.
Actors Lee Je-hoon and Park Jeong-min from Yoon’s first film are back in his second film. Lee has been cast in the lead role -- Joon-seok, the leader of the three friends -- while Park plays Sang-soo, a casino staff member who helps the three friends steal the money. Yoon had said in a previous press conference that he was personally close to the two actors and that the three had discussed much about the film as he developed the story.
Ahn Jae-hong of the JTBC drama “Melo Is My Nature” (2019) and Choi Woo-shik of the Oscar-winning “Parasite” co-star as Joon-seok’s friends.
Park Hae-soo plays the killer, Han, who plays a cat-and-mouse game with the four young men.
“Time to Hunt” was simultaneously released in more than 190 countries on Netflix on Thursday.
By Choi Ji-won (
jwc@heraldcorp.com)
