Time to Hunt
Time to Hunt (film).jpg
Official release poster
Hangul사냥의 시간
Revised RomanizationSanyangui Sigan
Directed byYoon Sung-hyun
Written byYoon Sung-hyun
Produced byHandae Rhee
Starring
CinematographyLim Won-geun
Edited by
  • Yoon Sung-hyun
  • Wang Sung-ik
Production
company
Distributed byNetflix
Release dates
  • February 22, 2020 (2020-02-22) (Berlinale)
  • April 23, 2020 (2020-04-23) (Netflix)
Running time
134 minutes
LanguageKorean
Box office$6,911[1]

Time to Hunt (Korean: 사냥의 시간; RR: Sanyangui Sigan) is a 2020 South Korean dystopian action thriller film[2][3] written and directed by Yoon Sung-hyun. It was released worldwide on April 23, 2020 by Netflix.[4][5][6] Set in a dystopian South Korea, the film follows a group of friends who plot a heist and find themselves hunted down by a mysterious assassin after accomplishing the mission.

The film premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival on February 22, 2020, making it the first South Korean film to be screened in the Berlinale Special section.[7][8]

Plot[edit]

In dystopian South Korea, Jun-seok gets released from prison, due to a botched heist he and his friends pulled and which resulted in his incarceration. The South Korean won has crashed massively, making that haul effectively worthless. Jun-seok proposes one last heist to his best friends Jang-ho and Ki-hoon, to flee 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-sik – a friend Jun-seok knew in prison – the quartet proceeds with the heist which, though becoming messy, ultimately turns out to be 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. After the heist, Sang-soo requests to stay in the city a little longer to continue working at the gambling house, to avoid raising suspicion. The trio leaves to go to Ki-hoon's parents' home.

The loss of the surveillance hard drives makes the gambling house's owners unhappy. They recruit police officer-turned-contract killer Han to track the quartet and retrieve the hard drives. Han visits Bong-sik, forces him to call Jun-seok to reveal the trio's current location, and kills him. Han tracks down Sang-soo, and kills him off-screen, taking his phone. Jun-seok wakes up from a nightmare and goes to a bar. He receives a call from Sang-soo's phone, but on realising that someone else inside the bar has Sang-soo's phone, he leaves in panic, meets up with Jang-ho and Ki-hoon and tells them to flee, knowing that someone is hunting them down.

Trying to get away from the lodge, Han shoots Jang-ho, and the car crashes. Han gives the trio a 5-minute advantage before continuing his hunt, and they drive to the hospital to treat Jang-ho's injury. At the hospital, as they are resting, Jun-seok sees Han arrive at the hospital. The trio escape the hospital and notice Han's car is on, so they take it; only to realise that it is a police cruiser that has access to the city's surveillance cameras. Assuming that Han is a cop, they attempt to make a deal with him, but he refuses. Han is arrested by the police, but they release him on the road under the police chief's orders.

The trio arrives at the harbor, where they have to stay until dawn. Suspecting that his parents are in trouble, Ki-hoon returns to his parents' home, saying goodbye to Jun-seok, who is outside. Jun-seok returns at dusk, sees an unknown car near the entrance, and realises that Han has arrived. Jun-seok and Jang-ho escape from Han and run to a nearby car, but Han shoots at them before Jang-ho can start the car. Jun-seok says fighting Han is their only chance to escape.

In the ensuing gunfight, Han shoots Jang-ho multiple times, and the latter eventually succumbs to his injuries and dies. As Jun-seok is about to be killed by Han, a group of masked men, led by Bong-sik's twin brother Bong-soo, arrives to kill Han to avenge his brother's death. The masked men shoot Han numerous times, and he falls off the edges of the docks, into the sea.

At dawn, Jun-seok takes the boat to Kenting, Taiwan, where he stays for some time, but he still cannot get over the loss of his friends. He asks for information regarding everyone associated with the gambling house and learns that Han has survived. It is also revealed that Ki-hoon died after returning home. Jun-seok, now better at gunfiring, knows that he will never escape from Han and returns to South Korea to face him and finish him off.

Cast[edit]

Main[edit]

Special appearances[edit]

Production[edit]

Principal photography began in January 2018 and filming was completed on July 15, 2018.[9][10] Filming mostly took place in Incheon.[11]

Release[edit]

The film was originally set to be released in theaters on February 26, 2020, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[12][13] On March 23, it was announced that Netflix would release the film on April 10.[14][15]

Legal dispute[edit]

Following the announcement that Time to Hunt would be released on Netflix, the film's then-international sales agency Contents Panda[a] filed an injunction against Little Big Pictures (distributor of the film) as they "unilaterally notified [Contents Panda] of the termination of the contract" and "none of the overseas distributors agreed on an exclusive distribution agreement with Netflix."[16]

As of April 8, 2020 Netflix announced the release date has been postponed to comply with the Seoul Central District Court ruling regarding distribution contracts, and no further info for a possible release date was given.[17]

On April 16, 2020 the parties agreed to a compensation deal with distributors and the Court injunction was lifted.[18][19][20] On April 20, Netflix announced that the film would be released three days later.[21][22]

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10.[23]

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter describes it as "a technical tour-de-force running over two hours [which] belongs both to the East Asian testosterone-powered action genre whose unrelenting tension will be reward in itself for fans, as well as to socially conscious coming-of-age stories whose painstaking character development adds a deeper sense of realism."[24]

Accolades[edit]

Year Award Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
2020 56th Baeksang Arts Awards Best Actor Lee Je-hoon Nominated [25]
Best New Actor Park Hae-soo Nominated
14th Asian Film Awards Best Cinematography Lim Won-geun Nominated [26]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ A subsidiary of Next Entertainment World (NEW), one of Little Big Pictures' bigger rivals

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Time to Hunt (2020)". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  2. ^ "'Time to Hunt' to be released worldwide Thursday on Netflix". The Jakarta Post. 20 April 2020. A dystopian action-thriller from director Yoon Sung-hyun, “Time to Hunt” is one of the most anticipated Korean films of the year.
  3. ^ "[Herald Interview] Director challenges himself with action thriller 'Time to Hunt'". Korea Herald. 27 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020. “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.
  4. ^ Kwak, Yeon-soo (March 23, 2020). "'Time to Hunt' skips theaters and goes straight to Netflix". The Korea Times. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  5. ^ MacDonald, Joan (March 23, 2020). "Thriller 'Time To Hunt' Will Air Online". Forbes. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  6. ^ Choi, Ji-won (March 23, 2020). "Netflix to exclusively release 'Time to Hunt'". The Korea Herald. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  7. ^ Choi, Ji-won (January 22, 2020). "'Time to Hunt' starring SAG-winner Choi Woo-sik to screen at Berlin fest". The Korea Herald. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  8. ^ Choi, Ji-won (February 25, 2020). "Hong Sang-soo's latest film gets premiere at Berlinale". The Korea Herald. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  9. ^ Cho, Ji-young (March 23, 2020). "[SC이슈] '사냥의 시간' 극장 개봉 포기→넷플릭스行...역갑질vs국제적 소송 대립 '일파만파'". Sports Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  10. ^ Conran, Pierce (August 7, 2018). "Korean Sci-fi HUNTING TIME Wraps 6-Month Shoot". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  11. ^ Patel, Varun (April 9, 2020). "Where Was Time to Hunt Filmed?". The Cinemaholic. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  12. ^ Kwak, Yeon-soo (March 2, 2020). "Korea closes theaters, postpones film releases to curb coronavirus' spread". The Korea Times. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  13. ^ Kim, Jae-heun (March 8, 2020). "New coronavirus postpones release of over 50 films". The Korea Times. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  14. ^ Lee, Gyu-lee (March 23, 2020). "'Time to Hunt' to premiere through Netflix". The Korea Times. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  15. ^ Frater, Patrick (March 23, 2020). "Berlin Gala Film 'Time To Hunt' Abandons Theatrical Release, Heads to Netflix". Variety. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  16. ^ Lee, Gyu-lee (April 8, 2020). "Film 'Time to Hunt' faces lawsuit over Netflix debut". The Korea Times. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  17. ^ Lee, Gyu-lee (April 9, 2020). "Netflix halts 'Time to Hunt' release, promotion after injunction". The Korea Times. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  18. ^ Grater, Tom (April 16, 2020). "Korean Thriller 'Time To Hunt' Heading To Netflix After Court Injunction Lifts". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  19. ^ Kwak, Yeon-soo (April 17, 2020). "'Time to Hunt' coming to Netflix after dispute resolved". The Korea Times. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  20. ^ Lim, Jang-won (April 17, 2020). ""Time to Hunt" to be released on Netflix after distributing companies reach agreement". The Korea Herald. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  21. ^ Kim, Ye-rang (April 20, 2020). "'사냥의 시간' 23일 넷플릭스 공개…온라인 GV에 배우 총출동 [공식]". Hankyung (in Korean). Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  22. ^ Choi, Ji-won (April 20, 2020). "'Time to Hunt' to be released worldwide Thursday on Netflix". The Korea Herald. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  23. ^ "Time to Hunt (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  24. ^ Young, Deborah (February 22, 2020). "'Time to Hunt' ('Sa-nyang-eui-si-gan'): Film Review / Berlin 2020". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  25. ^ MacDonald, Joan (May 8, 2020). "Baeksang Arts Awards Announces Nominees And Plans To Proceed Without An Audience". Forbes. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  26. ^ "The 14th Asian Film Awards Nominations Announced". afa-academy.com. September 8, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2020.

External links[edit]