Synopsis
Time to Hunt is a 2020 South Korean dystopian thriller by writer-director Yoon Sung-hyun. Mixing crime drama, sci-fi, and a taut cat-and-mouse chase, the movie offers a raw look at survival in a shattered society. Set in a near-future South Korea reeling from economic collapse, it serves as both a gripping suspense story and a sharp social critique.
The film opens in a country where banks have failed, jobs have vanished, and hunger is the daily norm. Against this backdrop, a tight-knit group of worn-out young men decide to risk everything on a bold robbery. Their simple plan is to grab enough cash for a one-way ticket to an imagined paradise called “Taiwan,” a distant dream that symbolizes hope, escape, and the faintest glimmer of a brighter tomorrow.
The story follows Joon-seok, played by Lee Je-hoon, fresh from prison. He spent his time locked up dreaming of a fresh start. He hatched a bold idea: rob an underground gambling joint that only deals in American dollars. In Joon-seok’s grim world, that currency is almost magic—rare, steady, and powerful. Once out, Joon-seok finds his old crew—Ki-hoon (Choi Woo-shik), Jang-ho (Ahn Jae-hong), and Sang-soo (Park Jung-min). Each of them comes along for his own reason, but the mix is the same: brotherhood and hunger for something better.
The heist kicks off smoothly. The crew breezes through, pockets the cash, and vanishes into the night. At first, it feels like a living dream. But the celebration ends fast. The gambling house is only a front for a dangerous syndicate. When the cartel notices the missing cash, it sends a warning that packs steel: Han (Park Hae-soo), an assassin with a calm face and a cold heart. Han is coming for the gang, and his only question is how many bodies he’ll stack before he gets the money back.
Han is a ruthless killer who turns the gang’s own tactics against them, stalking them in the shadows. What begins as a slick heist spins quickly into a heart-stopping nightmare. The friends sprint through collapsing city streets, snake through the damp, dark tunnels, and take refuge in ghostly high-rises, every hideout already marked for death. The chill in the air isn’t just the winter wind anymore; it’s the predator moving closer, step by silent step.
As night bleeds into day, the dread deepens. Secrets unfold like old wounds; trust crumbles like cracked pavement. Joon-seok, the ever-hopeful leader, suddenly finds the light he once chased turning to flame. The rules he kept reciting fracture under the weight of gunfire. With every comrade lost, he wrestles guilt and the sick truth that in a lawless world, dreaming of a better dawn is a gamble where the house always wins. The city rots around them; only the hunter remains cold and enduring.
Cast & Crew
Lee Je-hoon as Joon-seok
Lee Je-hoon carries the film as Joon-seok, a man worn down by loss yet refusing to give up. He moves from a dreamer sketching escape plans to a hollow survivor, and Lee makes every stage feel real. He shows us the small cracks in Joon-seok’s armor and the fierce spark that refuses to die, balancing despair and fierce hope in every scene.
Ahn Jae-hong as Jang-ho
Ahn Jae-hong lightens the film by sneaking in smiles—even in the wreckage. Jang-ho is the team’s rambling heart, cracking jokes and handing out snacks, the one never quite sure how bad the world is. Ahn’s easy laugh and wide-eyed wonder remind us that love and loyalty can bloom even in the ashes.
Choi Woo-shik as Ki-hoon
Choi Woo-shik, who stole hearts in Parasite, shows us Ki-hoon’s split self. Torn between the fierce brotherhood he can’t quit and the terror outside, Ki-hoon never settles. He flinches at every gunshot yet stands up for his friends. Choi makes you feel every shove the world gives him and every small, brave answer he finds.
Park Jung-min as Sang-soo
Park Jung-min plays Sang-soo with a tough swagger that never pretends to be soft. He reads every doorway, every shadow, and every lie. He carries the street’s hurt in his voice and knows the rules—break them and you bleed. Sang-soo’s cool head pushes against Joon-seok’s wild hope, yet they still lean on one another when the next storm rolls in.
Park Hae-soo as Han
Park Hae-soo’s portrayal of Han may linger in your mind long after the credits roll. He plays the relentless pursuer with an icy restraint that chills the blood. Every measured step, every quiet breath, hints that Han is more than a man—he’s the embodiment of a cruel, unfeeling system hell-bent on revenge. Thanks to Park, the film’s atmosphere of dread never lets up.
Director & Writer: Yoon Sung-hyun
Yoon Sung-hyun, who first stunned audiences with the award-winning Bleak Night in 2011, returns with a story that marries raw human emotion to genre thrills. He prefers long, patient takes that let the shadows breathe, while the camera steadily tightens its grip. The result is a mounting dread that feels inescapable. Yoon also wrote the script, weaving a fast-paced chase with a deeply felt critique of a world already bending in the wrong direction—young people locked in dead-end jobs, widening class divides, and a steadily eroding faith in the very institutions that once offered hope.
Cinematography: Lim Won-geun
Lim Won-geun’s cinematography is another standout. He drenches the film in steely greys and sickly fluorescents, turning every industrial corridor and battered rooftop into a reflection of the characters’ hollowed-out souls. The camera glides and lingers with deliberate slowness, letting dread simmer just beneath the surface of every frame.
Music: Primary
Korean producer Primary scored Time to Hunt by tying agitated electronic beats to chilly synth sounds, giving the film a restless, ghostly pulse. Each chase and standoff feels tighter and colder under the music, which stretches the sense of dread and emptiness until it almost snaps.
IMDb Ratings
In 2025, Time to Hunt sits at 6.3/10 on IMDb. Critics and fans met the film with a guarded cheer: reviewers liked the thick, lived-in atmosphere, the brutal choreography, and Park Hae-soo’s tight, haunted turn as Han. But some said the rhythm faltered in places, stalling the story or delaying the moments that should sting.
What drew attention, however, was the film’s insistence on steering the heist story toward bleaker ground. Instead of a grand getaway or a stylish payday, the film eyes the slow toll of every choice, the slow burn of every loss, and the way freedom in a shattered world is always a mirage.
International viewers sometimes wished for more detail on the vanished society: the script sketches a ruined city but keeps the collapse itself in the shadows. Still, the film’s jagged originality, its command of mounting dread, and a tightly wound cast drew whichever audience it has.
Originally planned for a theatrical run, Time to Hunt ended up being one of the first big South Korean films to hit Netflix worldwide during the COVID-19 lockdown, letting it reach a global audience earlier than anyone intended.
Conclusion
Time to Hunt is a daring, moody thriller that weaves heist thrills with a sense of a crumbling future and tight psychological dread. It’s more than a simple crime yarn; it probes a society falling apart, shattered dreams, and the desperate miles people will walk for a shot at a new life. With gripping turns from Lee Je-hoon and Park Hae-soo, the movie serves up both aching emotion and nail-biting tension.
What sets Time to Hunt apart is its flat refusal to tie everything in a neat bow. It shows a landscape where optimism is thin, loyalty is paper, and the cost of freedom soars past what anyone thought they could pay. In a film world that loves clear-cut heroes and villains, this one forces us to wonder if those labels even count when the whole system is the real enemy.
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