Hunt

"Two rivals, a hidden truth."

2022 2h 11m KO

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 223

ActionMysteryDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After a high-ranking North Korean official requests asylum, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho and Domestic Unit chief Kim Jung-do are tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy, known as Donglim, who is deeply embedded within their agency. When the spy begins leaking top secret intel that could jeopardize national security, the two units are each assigned to investigate each other.

“Two rivals, a hidden truth.”

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Cast

Lee Jung-jae
Park Pyong-ho
Jung Woo-sung
Kim Jung-do
Jeon Hye-jin
Bang Ju-kyung
Heo Sung-tae
Jang Chul-sung
Go Youn-jung
Cho Yoo-jung
Kim Jong-soo
Director Ahn
Jeong Man-sik
Yang Bo-sung
Im Hyung-kook
Transposer

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Lee Jung-jae
Writers: Lee Jung-jae, Jo Seung-hee
Languages: Japanese, English, Korean
Countries: South Korea

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 0% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 4 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Japanese, English, Korean.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Lee Jung-jae, shot by Lee Mo-gae. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Cho Young-wuk. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kim Sang-bum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung and Jeon Hye-jin carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Two rivals, a hidden truth.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lee Jung-jae directs. Lee Mo-gae behind the camera. Cho Young-wuk scores. Kim Sang-bum cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in South Korea. Dialogue in Japanese, English, Korean.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 0% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 4 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Japanese, English, Korean.
4Directed by Lee Jung-jae, shot by Lee Mo-gae. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Cho Young-wuk. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Kim Sang-bum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung and Jeon Hye-jin carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Two rivals, a hidden truth.".
9IMDB entry: tt6931658 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "assassin", "espionage", "spy", "intelligence".
11Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Lee Mo-gae
Original score: Cho Young-wuk
Editing: Kim Sang-bum
Production design: Park Elhen
Costume design: Cho Sang-kyung
Makeup / hair: Son Eun-ju
Stunt coordinator: Heo Myeong-haeng
Runtime: 131 min · 2h 11m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $17,000,000
Box office: $25,994
Return: 0% of budget
Original language: KO
IMDB: Hunt (2022)

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-11-17
★ 6/10
"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.
MovieGuys2022-11-17
★ 7/10
Hunt is a fictionalised tale, based in a very dark period, of South Korea's recent history. Superficially, Hunt is an espionage tale but, more than that, its true core theme, examines the price of becoming locked into a system that is cruel and dehumanising. In this case, a dictatorial, South Korean, military government, that came to power in the 1980's, off the back of a bloody coup d'etat. The main characters, in their own way, try to minimise the suffering and death of ordinary people but the cycle is unbreakable and inevitably, any attempt to end suffering and death always leads to more. This is because the system of government itself, in North and South Korea, is broken and dictatorial. There's a lot of pretty gut wrenching violence and scenes of torture, in this film. As participants, willing or otherwise, its impossible to like any of the main characters. That said, you can empathise with their efforts, to try and put an end to the soul destroying system, they find themselves trapped within. In summary, well acted, unrelentingly cruel and violent, fast paced, with a sophisticated, underlying message, about the price of being part of a system of dehumanising tyranny.