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"Squid Game" Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae stars and directs this week's explosive blockbuster "Hunt," a film about double and triple crosses in a spy game between North and South Korea in the 1980s. About halfway through Lee's film, I realized I had completely lost the thread of who was a good guy and who was a bad guy, but I think that's intentional. This film is about men in well-tailored suits who must constantly determine if the armed fellow next to them is on their side or possibly fighting for the enemy. While some of the action sequences are well-staged, particularly the final explosive one, the convoluted screenplay by Jo Seung-Hee collapses under the weight of so much deception. "Hunt" has some excellent bang-bang escapism, but it's ultimately too shallow to recommend.

Lee plays Park Pyong-ho, a South Korean officer who is seen foiling an assassination attempt in the explosive opening scene, but his fellow officer Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) shoots the suspect, meaning they can't get to the bottom of the plot. Was this intentional? Is he hiding something the gunman might have revealed? "Hunt" sets up early on that there's a North Korean mole in the operation and wants us to keep guessing if it's Pyong-ho or Jung-do behind the espionage as the two men with a shared violent past also become increasingly suspicious of one another.

That's about it, but it leads to dozens of sequences of shifting loyalties, usually intercut with violent action. Accusations—explosions—accusations—gunfire—accusations ... you get the idea. It all gets a little exhausting, and Lee's non-stop hyperactive cutting and moving camera don't help. He shoots many of the dialogue-driven scenes with the same frantic feeling as the action. This is the twisting narrative of something like " Infernal Affairs " (which was remade as " The Departed ") but without the craft and ten times the chaos. It becomes an increasingly difficult film to care about narratively, and Lee's admittedly ambitious eye for action doesn't compensate.

There are reasons to hope Lee's sophomore effort might be stronger. He's clearly a strong director of performers, as Jung is particularly good here—I found his shifting loyalty and presence more interesting than Lee's. And, again, when bullets start to fly, the film sometimes attains a gritty action nihilism like the films from the era in which it takes place. There's a harsh realism to some of the action scenes as bodies fly, and sets get ripped apart by bullets. It's not that modern, overly stylized action aesthetic that was spawned by so many "John Wick" imitators as much as something that feels like it's dangerously unfolding in front of you.

The problem is that it's impossible to even keep track of who's getting shot. When all the bodies have fallen, there are a couple of memorable scenes in "Hunt"—a sequence with a potential defector is expertly assembled, and the final major one is a beauty—but you'll have trouble remembering much of the plot. Of course, that's presuming you could follow it in the first place.

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Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Hunt (2022)

131 minutes

Lee Jung-jae as Park Pyung-ho

Jung Woo-Sung as Kim Jung-do

Jeon Hye-Jin as Bang Ju-kyung

Heo Sung-tae as Jang Chul-sung

Go Youn-jung as Jo Yoo-jung

Kim Jong-soo as Director Ahn

Jeong Man-sik as Yang Bo-sung

• Lee Jung-jae
• Jo Seung-hee

Cinematographer

• Kim Sang-bum
• Cho Young-wuk

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Although it frequently forsakes action in favor of a needlessly knotty narrative, Hunt has enough thrills to satisfy more forgiving espionage fans.

Critics Reviews

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Lee Jung-jae

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Jeon Hye-jin

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‘Hunt’ Review: Spy vs. Spy vs. Subplots

A dense espionage narrative proves all too tangled in this directorial debut from the South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae.

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By Robert Daniels

“Hunt,” the feature directorial debut of the South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae ( a star of “Squid Game” ), is a tangled espionage thriller that recalls the suspenseful works of the British novelist John le Carré.

Set during the early 1980s, the film, dominated by flashbacks, features double crosses, subterfuge, geopolitical angst and professional regret as the backdrop to an intense pursuit by two competing intelligence agents — Park Pyong-ho (Lee) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) — to uncover a North Korean mole embedded in their agency who intends to assassinate South Korea’s president.

A dense narrative bursting with elaborate red herrings proves an unmanageable mess as the film wears on. Kim and Park accuse each other of being the spy; student protests explode; missions misfire; anonymous soldiers eliminate key witnesses; and Kim uses an allegation of treason against Park’s adoptive daughter (Go Yoon-jung) as blackmail. All of this is barely held together by vigorous shootouts littered throughout. Lee’s overt visual homages to Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” and Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” his keen eye for period detail, the rising body count and the moral quandary that arises when Park and Kim question their loyalty to their country do little to reclaim one’s interest.

A convoluted conclusion, begot by an unconvincing change of heart, obliterates any chance of “Hunt” offering the clarity it needs to be entertaining. Instead, Lee’s directorial effort wanders toward something unmemorable.

Hunt Not rated. In Korean, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 11 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon , Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

‘Hunt’ Review: Trust No One in This Unpredictable Korean Spy-vs.-Spy Game

Onetime Korean heartthrob and 'Squid Game' star Lee Jung-jae shores up his newfound genre status by helming this over-the-top conspiracy thriller.

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Audiences needn’t know much about South Korean history to appreciate what follows, other than to trust that the country’s power shifts tend to be shocking and soap-operatic when they come, which helps to justify the confusing snare of double- and triple-crosses ahead. Things start conventionally enough, as a group of highly trained operatives make a first attempt at the Korean president’s life during a visit to Washington, D.C., but by the end, they have escalated to such a degree that pretty much anyone is capable of anything.

Like Korea’s answer to playbook-be-damned “24” hero Jack Bauer, these two top spies use torture, murder and more as tools of the trade. Early on, a North Korean asylum seeker warns that there’s a mole in the KCIA, code name “Donglim,” leading each agent to suspect the other. Whoever he is, this traitor’s presence puts key operations in serious jeopardy: A dozen agents are executed in a deadly ambush, while plans to extract the defector backfire spectacularly, resulting in a visceral car chase/shootout.

The cat-and-mouse dynamics of “Hunt” aren’t nearly as satisfying as its action set-pieces, which Lee and his team pull off with considerable skill. The action is slick and immediate without feeling overly stylized. Eschewing slo-mo and show-offy choreography in favor of more immersive eyewitness blocking, Lee channels American maestro Michael Mann, resulting in gun battles where tough guys stride into danger without so much as flinching while high-caliber bullets slam through steel around them.

Of the two agents, Lee is the more likable, giving off classic Jimmy Stewart vibes (from any of the Hitchcock films in which he plays the falsely accused fall guy) as Kim starts to question whether he could be the mole. The eventual reveal of Donglim’s identity isn’t nearly as straightforward as anyone might have expected, though saying more might spoil the surprise of a finale that spins everyone’s motives so far around, even the American agent (Derek Chouinard) keeping tabs from the sidelines has been implicated in the madness. The last few scenes are so ludicrous as to be laughable, but that doesn’t sabotage the fun, allowing Lee to entertain, even as “Hunt” cynically makes its case that in Korea, there can be no such thing as a peaceful revolution, nor a clean transfer of power.

Reviewed at CAA, Los Angeles, May 10, 2022. In Cannes Film Festival (Midnight Screenings). Running time: 131 MIN.

• Production: (S. Korea) A Megabox Joongang Plus M presentation of an Artist Studio, Sanai Pictures production. (World sales: Megabox Joongang Plus M, Seoul.) Producers:
• Crew: Director: Lee Jung-Jae. Screenplay: Lee Jung-Jae, Jo Seung-Hee. Camera:
• With: Lee Jung-Jae, Jung Woo-Sung, Jeon Hye-Jin, Heo Sung-Tae, Go Youn-Jung, Kim Jong-Soo, Jun Man-Sik.

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‘hunt’ (‘heonteu’): film review | cannes 2022.

‘Squid Game’ star Lee Jung-jae makes his directing debut on this 1980s-set espionage thriller, co-starring with Jung Woo-sung as intelligence agents trying to smoke out a North Korean mole.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Set during the instability of South Korea in the 1980s under an authoritarian government, with a background of student protesters pushing for Democracy as North Korea angles to assume national control via forced reunification, Hunt has ample political texture. It’s also not short on car chases, firefights, hand-to-hand clashes, explosions and cellphones the size of house bricks. What this twisty espionage thriller, the directing debut of Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae , doesn’t have enough of is character depth or storytelling coherence. That undercuts its effectiveness as action entertainment, a premiere Midnight slot in Cannes notwithstanding.

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Charismatic leads and some intense set-pieces keep you watching, but this is an increasingly frustrating movie that loses its way amid a dense thicket of plot complications, double-dealings, counterplans and surprise revelations, without laying the necessary groundwork to help you keep track of what’s going on. Or to care. Lee shows no lack of ambition in his move behind the camera, but this type of psychologically complex, high-speed genre intrigue requires tighter narrative control. The characters are so veiled in secrecy and deception that their motivations, along with their true allegiances, too often remain opaque.

Venue : Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition) Cast : Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin, Heo Sung-tae, Go Youn-jung, Kim Jong-soo, Jung Man-sik Director : Lee Jung-jae Screenwriters : Lee Jung-jae, Jo Seung-hee

Opening in Washington, D.C., the film swiftly sets up its key adversaries when Park Pyong-ho (Lee) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung), respectively foreign and domestic unit chiefs of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, are thrust into action to foil snipers aiming to assassinate the South Korean president during a State visit. Park is briefly taken hostage but narrowly escapes by killing the assailant and angering Kim, who wanted the man brought in alive for interrogation.

The fallout from that incident leaves them with the dangling question of a leak within the organization, and the paranoia of finding a North Korean mole, known as Donglin, in the KCIA. While Park is an agency veteran of 12 years, Kim is new to the field, coming from a Korean Army background, which adds to their mutual distrust. Park’s distaste for his colleague’s use of brutal torture in his interrogation methods only feeds the initially unspoken animosity between them.

A botched special ops mission and the exposure of a corrupt KCIA director heighten the urgency of uncovering the threat to national security, while Park’s obscure personal ties to Yoo-jung (Go Youn-jung), a college student implicated with protestors who is cagey about her past, also casts him in a suspicious light with Kim. When the KCIA appoints another military man as director, Ahn (Kim Jong-soo), he pits the two unit chiefs against one another, putting Kim in charge of an internal witch hunt that will have multiple casualties. But it’s Park’s female deputy and skilled data analyst, Agent Ju-kyung (Jeon Hye-jin), who uncovers a shocking truth that radically shifts the perspective at great personal cost.

Meanwhile, a security breach puts a Korean-Japanese summit meeting in jeopardy and the plot to eliminate the president picks up new momentum with a planned visit to Bangkok. It’s no great surprise when the involvement of the American CIA comes to light. Lee and his stunt coordinator Heo Myeong-heang stage the Thailand assault like an explosive Western showdown, with a military parade on the grounds in front of a grand embassy building that spirals into a blood-drenched shootout.

Lee Mo-gae’s sharp cinematography, Kim Sang-bum’s propulsive edit and a suspenseful score by Cho Young-wuk bring technical polish to Hunt . But despite the compelling screen presences of the two leads, the movie never pauses long enough to dig into the professional rivalry between Park and Kim, their conflicting ideologies or their strategic psychological warfare. Its dynamic surges of violence are often impressive on a scene-by-scene basis, but ultimately, it all unfolds at a muddled distance.

Full credits

Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition) Production companies: Artist Studio, Sanai Pictures Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin, Heo Sung-tae, Go Youn-jung, Kim Jong-soo, Jung Man-sik Director: Lee Jung-jae Screenwriters: Lee Jung-jae, Jo Seung-hee Producers: Han Jae-duk, Lee Jung-jae Executive producers: Jeongin Hong, Jinsun Kim Director of photography: Lee Mo-gae Production designer: Park Il-hyun Costume designers: Cho Sang-kyung, Choi Yoon-sun Music: Cho Young-wuk Editor: Kim Sang-bum Sound designer: Jung Gun Visual effects supervisors: Chang Ick-jea, Kim Tae-eui Sales: Megabox Plus M

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‘Hunt’ Review: ‘Squid Game’ Actor Lee Jung-jae Brings a Dense Spy Thriller to Cannes

Lee’s directorial debut fictionalizes Korean history and throws in double agents, buried secrets and lots of broken arms

This review originally ran May 19, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

The opening credits of “Hunt,” a South Korean thriller that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival at midnight on Thursday, offer an unusual juxtaposition. The first card in Lee Jung-jae’s film points out that this is a fictional story, and any resemblance to real people, etc. But that’s immediately followed by several cards laying out the political history of South Korea in the 1970s and ’80s: How a military coup took over in 1979 after the assassination of the president, and how the leader installed by that coup eventually claimed the presidency and began a crackdown on the press and anyone who didn’t agree with him.

So what is “Hunt?” A fictional story, or the thinly-disguised tale of what happened after this new president, who is conspicuously unnamed throughout the film, came into power?

Actually, it’s a fictional story set among real events and dealing with some real people, including one who apparently still has enough clout to keep a movie that centers on his presidency from using his real name. (By the way, the real South Korean leader who was installed by a coup in 1979 and claimed the presidency in 1980 was Chun Doo-hwon, who died at the age of 90 only six months ago.)

Those opening titles may be sending some seriously mixed messages, but it’s wise to pay attention to the history lesson they contain. “Hunt,” the directorial debut from veteran Korean actor and “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, is a dense and bloody spy thriller with enough twists, turns, double agents, defectors and buried secrets to confuse even viewers who know the geopolitical players without a scorecard. For those of us who are struggling to figure out who’s who and where their sympathies lie on the fly, it can get downright impenetrable.

The key, perhaps, is not to worry about every detail, and just go along for the ride. Lee knows his way around a story with deadly consequences, and the game that’s being played in “Hunt” is a real one – which gives it more portent but also makes it a lot less fun than a pulpy TV series.

It starts with a foiled attempt to assassinate the new president, with the assassin killed as he yells, “I was just following orders!” (By the way, South Korea’s 2020 Oscar submission, “The Man Standing Next,” tells the story of the 1979 assassination of the previous president, Park Chung-hee.) The new president’s top aides come down hard on the defense services for not doing a better job of protection, with the heat turned up particularly high on a pair of Korean Central Intelligence Agency chiefs, sometime allies and sometime foes Park Pyong-ho (played by director Lee) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo Sung).

Clearly there’s a North Korean mole (dubbed Donglim) somewhere in the agency, and the administration is happy to use the intelligence agency to torture any and all info out of whoever who might have it. Those scenes are frequent and graphic, though “Hunt” is an action/suspense film that’s more about the conversations than the chaotic fistfights, the gun battles or the methodical breaking of dissidents’ arms, which seems to be a favored tactic.

Sleek and serious, burnished and brutal, “Hunt” is a Cold War story in which no side comes out looking good. North Korea is the canny enemy, Russia is a looming boogeyman, the South Korean presidency is in the hands of a vicious dictator and the American CIA is lurking in the shadows, always covering its tracks but ready to do anything to hurt Russian interests. This is a world in which expediency matters far more than morality, and Lee gets that across even if the rapidly expanding program of double-crosses gets more confusing by the minute.  

To his credit, Lee pulls off a suspenseful puzzle in which shifting motives and dense plots keep the audience guessing until a big and fairly ludicrous action scene at the finale. Or, to be more accurate, it’s a big and fairly ludicrous action scene that you think is the finale; in truth, “Hunt” has more endings than “The Return of the King.”

It succumbs to silliness sometimes, populated as it is by characters who take a licking and keep on ticking (or take a shooting and keep on tooting). But the real violence takes place in boardrooms and offices where Lee finds enough quiet savagery to make “Squid Game” look like child’s play.  

“Hunt” opens in US theaters and on demand Dec. 2 via Magnet Releasing.

Hunt review: Lee Jung-jae plays another deadly game

The squid game star makes his film directing debut with a tantalizing, '80s-set espionage thriller for netflix.

Lee Jung-jae follows up his Emmy-winning turn in Squid Game with the ambitious espionage thriller Hunt , a film set in South Korea during the height of the Cold War. Lee stars in, directs, co-writes, and co-produces this taut, extravagant, and technically proficient effort, which comes off more as an auspicious filmmaking debut than a vanity project, one that stacks up favorably with most American spy thrillers.

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Dangling the caveat of its fictional nature upfront, the film draws liberally from the political intrigue and instability of South Korea’s Fifth Republic under Chun Doo-hwan’s brutal military dictatorship. Though tensions persist between the two Koreas four decades later, the film’s 1980s universe is unrecognizable from the candy-colored land of K-pop today.

Before its title even emerges, Hunt thrusts viewers into an elaborate set piece complete with a messy shootout and an exploding grenade. Park Pyong-ho (Lee), chief of KCIA’s foreign unit, and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung, The Good, The Bad, The Weird ), chief of KCIA’s domestic unit, attempt to foil an assassination plot on the South Korean president during a U.S. visit. Merely two minutes in, Lee Jung-jae is already flexing by having cinematographer Lee Mo-gae line up an intricate shot of Chief Kim gradually falling out of focus as a revolving door in the background spins to reveal Chief Park standing behind, in focus. Right off the bat, the film aspires to a level of sophistication on par with Decision To Leave . Although it doesn’t fully live up to that comparison, it’s exciting to see a filmmaking novice stretch like this.

A spy is apparently among the ranks of the KCIA, leaking to North Korea the president’s international travel itineraries, plans to retrieve a defector and his family in Japan, and details of special ops. The two chiefs must investigate each other’s units to uncover the double agent. These inquiries are apparently routine, as Chief Park casually relays to Chief Kim’s wife over dinner, seemingly without an ounce of animosity, that he was tortured while questioned by her husband some years ago. But soon they’ll set about digging up dirt on one another, with each pinning the rival as the mole.

The film drops an abundance of clues that cast suspicion on both men. The premise seems derivative of doubling characters in classic Hong Kong action flicks— City On Fire , Hard Boiled , et al.—that have spawned copycats worldwide, such as Face/Off . Hunt specifically recalls Infernal Affairs and, to a much lesser extent, the 1999 South Korean film Shiri , which itself found inspiration in Hong Kong cinema.

Chief Park more closely resembles Lee’s pre-established screen persona in South Korea than Gi-hun from Squid Game , and it’s a bit surprising that the characterization of Chief Park allows little room for Lee to showcase his acting range. Most stars-turned-filmmakers have a reputation for being actors’ directors, but Lee is an exception. The film doesn’t boast any performance that’s particularly memorable, including his own and Jung’s. Heo Sung-tae, who plays the fearsome hoodlum Deok-su in Squid Game , also seems underutilized here.

The writing is where Lee’s inexperience shows. Though perhaps not readily noticeable to viewers leaning on subtitles, the screenplay by Lee and Jo Seung-hee is rather verbose. Agent Ju-kyung (Jeon Hye-jin) often walks alongside Chief Park to debrief him, in the process spelling everything out for the viewers. Espionage is inherently confusing, with myriad false identities and double-crosses. The urge to overexplain is understandable, but it’s not helpful in the midst of numerous flashbacks muddling the proceedings.

The most compelling sequence is actually without dialogue, showing a launderer transcribing Morse code stitched onto the cuffs of a dress shirt. Otherwise, production designer Park Il-hyun misses the opportunity to style an ’80s look beyond period markers like pagers and bulky cell phones.

Relentlessly grim, the movie does elicit very visceral reactions. Much like Squid Game , there are characters in Hunt we root for by default who don’t make it to the end. If Squid Game represents the ruthlessness of capitalism, Hunt reflects the human cost in the jostling for political power and dominance. Few characters are pure and not dabbling in some sinister plot, but who can blame them when the reigning regime was responsible for the Gwangju Massacre that claimed hundreds of lives? There have been several serious treatments of this tragic chapter in Korean history, so simple genre entertainment isn’t off limits. Some viewers will, unfortunately, be left with no context to recognize who or what is the real enemy.

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‘Hunt’: Cannes Review

By Tim Grierson, Senior US Critic 2022-05-20T00:15:00+01:00

‘Squid Game’ star Lee Jung-jae makes his muscular directorial debut with this kinetic, violent thriller

Source: Megabox Plus M

Dir: Lee Jung-jae. South Korea. 2022. 131 mins.

There will be blood — as well as plenty of double-crosses — in Hunt , which follows two South Korean government agents who are looking for a mole in their ranks, each man suspecting the traitor may be the other. Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae makes his directorial debut with this assured, violent thriller, providing a coolly controlled performance that goes toe-to-toe with an equally stoic Jung Woo-sung. The plotting may sometimes be convoluted, but the picture rolls along so forcefully that its familiar genre trappings hardly hamper the proceedings. 

 There’s a steely precision to  Hunt ’s gun battles, explosions and vehicular menace that’s overwhelming and kinetic

Hunt premieres in Cannes’ Midnight section, boasting the marquee value of its two veteran leads. The film’s tension and sustained action sequences could make it a fetching commercial proposition, especially among fans of muscular spy thrillers.  

Lee plays Park, the KCIA Foreign Unit chief who harbours dark memories of a past tragedy that will eventually be illuminated through flashbacks. After a failed assassination attempt on the president, both Park and Kim (Jung), the head of the Domestic Unit, are ordered to find the masterminds. But Park and Kim have a history — Kim roughly interrogated Park five years ago, leaving him with permanent nerve damage in his hand — and they don’t like one another. Nevertheless, their investigation leads to the discovery that a mysterious individual, codenamed Donglim, has infiltrated the KCIA. They must find this man, both becoming equally convinced that their opposite number is the double agent. 

Set in the 1980s, with a fictionalised narrative inspired by South Korean politics of the time, Hunt is rife with intrigue, paranoia, car chases and shootouts. While there is certainly a message buried underneath the film’s body count about the best way to foster societal change, it is secondary to the mystery of who Donglim is — and how many people will die along the way to find out the answer. Lee and editor Kim Sang-bum keep Hunt moving right along, confidently crosscutting between its two characters, who are separately trying to solve that riddle, each of them finding clues that seem to indict their rival. 

Lee is superb as this no-nonsense agent who objects to Kim’s torturing of suspects to get information. Meanwhile, Jung lends Kim an air of quiet malevolence as he calmly patronises his buttoned-down colleague. Hunt builds in intensity as the relationship between the two agents grows more contentious, resulting at one point in a fistfight that is both raw and shockingly comic. 

But that brief outburst pales in comparison to the lengthy action set pieces that Lee unveils elsewhere. There’s a steely precision to Hunt ’s gun battles, explosions and vehicular menace that is overwhelming and kinetic. Some of the stunt work is especially adept, and Cho Young-wuk’s propulsive score only further juices these rousing sequences. 

On occasion, the picture gets bogged down in twists and shifting allegiances. (Some supporting characters will prove unexpectedly important to the uncovering of the mole.) But while these plot points can slow the forward momentum, Lee has such a firm grasp on the material — and such an eye for dynamic staging — that one forgives the brief lapses into heavy exposition. Eventually, we do learn the mole’s identity, but by then we have discovered that riddle was really just an excuse for more and more carnage, culminating in a suitably overblown finale which aims for a sweeping dramatic grandeur that may be a little forced but is nonetheless sufficiently satisfying. Once the Hunt begins, you may not want it to end. 

Production companies: Artist Studio, Sanai Pictures

International sales: Megabox Plus M, [email protected]  

Producers: Han Jae-duk, Lee Jung-jae

Screenplay: Lee Jung-jae, Jo Seung-hee

Production design: Park Il-hyun

Editing: Kim Sang-bum

Cinematography: Lee Mo-gae 

Music: Cho Young-wuk 

Main cast: Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin, Heo Sung-tae, Go Youn-jung, Kim Jong-soo, Jung Man-sik 

• South Korea

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‘Hunt’ Review: ‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-jae Directs a Wildly Convoluted Korean Spy Thriller

David ehrlich.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Cannes  Film Festival. Magnet releases the film in theaters and on VOD on Friday, December 2.

An energetic yet hopelessly convoluted espionage thriller that doesn’t tell a story so much as it chronically bumps into one, “Hunt” — the directorial debut of “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae , who also co-wrote the script and plays the lead role — begins with a premise so primed for spy-vs-spy mind games that you can almost hear John le Carré licking his lips from beyond the grave.

It’s the early 1980s, North and South Korea are locked in a paranoia-driven cold war, and the Gwangju Uprising (during which hundreds, if not thousands, of South Korean students were killed while demonstrating against martial law) is still fresh in everyone’s minds. In fact, the massacre has left such a stain on the nation’s psyche that it even seeps into the Tarantino-esque alternate history that Lee spins here, providing some extra sogginess at the bottom of a self-serious popcorn movie in which the South Korean president is only a symbolic representation of the real Chun Doo-hwan.

Alarmed by the unrest and further agitated by rumors of a legendary North Korean mole within his ranks, the new director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency secretly orders the chiefs of his foreign and domestic units to investigate each other and uncover the truth by any means necessary. Chaos reigns. And I mean chaos . For starters, the heroic Pyong-ho (a highly watchable Lee) and his square-jawed and studious counterpart Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) aren’t merely co-workers, they’re also kind of pals. Oh, and — small note, here — one of them served as the other’s personal interrogator/torturer after the last regime change. Just another day at the office when you work for the bureau whose previous director, in real life, assassinated the president in the middle of a dinner party.

As if that weren’t enough to sustain 131 minutes of triple-crosses, ninth-dimensional chess, and betrayals so complicated that the movie eventually starts to feel like it’s chasing its own tail (by design, to a certain degree), Lee and his co-writer Jo Seung-hee don’t waste any time adding some more pieces to the puzzle. A sullen college student named Yoo-jung (Go Youn-jung) is the first person added to the mix, though the nature of her relationship to the much older Pyong-ho won’t be revealed for some time. Next, a mission to intercept a North Korean defector off the streets of Tokyo crumbles into a blisteringly intense shoot-out after someone blows the KCIA’s cover (“Train to Busan” stunt coordinator Heo Myeong-Haeng is credited with directing the action sequences, which are visceral and propulsive in a way that American crime sagas almost never are this side of “Heat”). And then, just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, a well-informed North Korean soldier lands his fighter plane in the middle of Seoul and promises to turn the whole investigation upside down.

If it sounds like I’m just reiterating the plot, that’s only because “Hunt” doesn’t leave much oxygen for anything else. For all of its committed performances (gritted teeth and flop sweat for everyone!), period-immaculate set design, and layered moral implications — particularly when Pyung-ho and Jung-do begin to question the greater value of spycraft and the secret-keeping on which it depends — Lee’s debut is little more than a chattering Pez dispenser full of plot twists. And plot twists within plot twists. And plot twists within plot twists within flashbacks that have their own plot twists. Every new scene contains its own board-resetting twist, those scenes careening into each other in such choppy fashion that it starts to feel as if the film is trying to wear you down in order to extract some precious North Korean intel.

This relentless info dump — this pointillistic bludgeoning of story beats — does occasionally cohere into something greater than the sum of its parts. In particular, it coheres into a huge L for the deep state. Watching these characters snap at their own reflections creates a gradual sense of unsustainability that Lee is able to parlay into a bitter commentary on the torrents of white noise and distrust that despotic governments create in order to maintain their power. At a certain point, you begin to realize that literally every member of the country’s intelligence department could be a double agent, and none of them would know.

A handful of egregiously clumsy beats (including a slow clap and a bonafide “are we the baddies?” speech from one of the lead spies) aren’t distracting enough to overwhelm from the more effective subplots and character arcs; a sequence in which Pyung-ho unseats a superior is a telling (and satisfying) indication of his character’s determination, and a thread involving his ultra-loyal subordinate (“The Merciless” actress Jeon Hye-jin) pays off with a harrowing scene that suggests how effective this movie could have been with a greater sense of clarity.

If only the film itself were afforded such a satisfying climax, instead of ending with just one last twist — a final reversal so ridiculous that it left me feeling silly for trying to follow the plot until that point. You’ll probably have a better time if you stop trying to keep up after the first 30 minutes and just let yourself get caught in the web. Or maybe, and I’m not pointing fingers here, you understand exactly what’s happening in this story because you’re an undercover CIA agent who’s been working both sides the whole time! Stranger things have happened, and by the time “Hunt” finally catches its prey, I assure you that they will.

“Hunt” premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. 

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Korean political thriller has violence, torture, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Working hard to serve your country. Placing yourse

The main characters are brave and determined, but

Cast is predominantly male and Korean. References

Burning effigies at political protests. Gunfights

Non-sexual nudity. Naked male shown from the side

Language used includes "asses," "f--k," "f---ing,"

References to corruption. Bribing and defrauding o

Characters drink alcohol in moderation. Smoking.

Parents need to know that Hunt is a South Korean action thriller loosely inspired by political turmoil in South Korea during the 1980s, when tensions with North Korea were running especially high. Against this backdrop, two security chiefs -- Park Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) --…

Positive Messages

Working hard to serve your country. Placing yourself in harm's way to protect others. However, characters and regimes often use questionable methods in pursuit of their goals.

Positive Role Models

The main characters are brave and determined, but frequently use their powers as law enforcement officials to harm others who oppose them or who they suspect of wrongdoing.

Diverse Representations

Cast is predominantly male and Korean. References to the differences between North and South Korea. Some female characters among the supporting cast. Male director and male writers. Briefly, more than one language is spoken.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Burning effigies at political protests. Gunfights with pistols and semi-automatic weapons. Gunshots and death. Blood but no gore. Police and government violence. Characters beaten with clubs, slapped, punched, kicked, stomped, choked, electrocuted, and tortured. Some are hospitalized because of their injuries, which includes dislocated joints. Reference to assassination,Explosions and death. Male characters violent toward females.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Non-sexual nudity. Naked male shown from the side while lying on his front. Character has shirt ripped open by captors.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language used includes "asses," "f--k," "f---ing," "son of a bitch," "bastard," "goddamned," "dammit," and "bitch."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

References to corruption. Bribing and defrauding officials of large sums of money.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Hunt is a South Korean action thriller loosely inspired by political turmoil in South Korea during the 1980s, when tensions with North Korea were running especially high. Against this backdrop, two security chiefs -- Park Pyong-ho ( Lee Jung-jae ) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) -- search for a North Korean mole in the Korea Central Intelligence Agency. Brute force and torture feature throughout, as the authorities resort to violence to achieve their aims. Park and Kim are also violent at times, becoming involved in various altercations. The most extreme violence are the torture scenes, where interrogators dislocate joints, slap, and beat suspects in pursuit of answers. Swearing is occasional but not constant, with a few variations of "f--k," "bitch," and "bastard" used when tempers run high. The movie is in Korean with English subtitles available. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

HUNT follows senior South Korean intelligence officials Park Pyong-ho ( Lee Jung-jae ) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) as they hunt for a North Korean spy.

Is It Any Good?

Unless you've got a solid grasp of recent Korean history, expect a tough time following the combustive action in this overstuffed political thriller. No one can accuse Squid Game star Lee of taking the easy route with Hunt , his directorial debut, which he also stars in, as under-pressure Korea Central Intelligence Agency Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho. But his intended modern espionage epic, inspired by real events, has far too many storylines thrown into the mix. There are a dizzying amount of assassination attempts, spies versus spies, and international relations. It gets to the point where many of the characters don't seem to be able to follow what's going on, which doesn't leave much hope for the audience.

The conviction and commitment of the cast is total, though. There are shades of The Departed and Heat at times, as its two leads go head-to-head while the political landscape shifts beneath their feet. We get some stylish set pieces, too, ratcheting up tension on both grand scales and in intimate settings. Overall, though, it's frustrating and exhausting too often. Perhaps next time Lee will keep it slightly simpler and tell a more engaging story.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Hunt . What did the movie tell us about how some governments use force to control their citizens? Were there repercussions for those responsible for the violence? Why does that matter? Does exposure to violent media desensitize kids to violence?

Discuss the period and setting. What do you know about South Korea's military dictatorship during the 1980s? Was the plot easy to follow?

Talk about some of the language used. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

Discuss the action set pieces. Did you have a favorite? How were they different from the ones you've seen in Western movies?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 2, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : December 2, 2022
• Cast : Lee Jung-jae , Jung Woo-sung , Hwang Jung-min
• Director : Lee Jung-jae
• Studio : Magnolia Pictures
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : History
• Run time : 131 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : May 8, 2023

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Hunt review: a confusing, but engaging spy thriller

“Lee Jung-jae announces himself as a filmmaker worth paying attention to with Hunt, a pulse-pounding spy thriller that suffers primarily from its own overly convoluted and confusing plot.”

• Lee Jung-jae's slick, engaging visual style
• Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo Sung's layered lead performances
• A surprisingly complex, thrilling final third
• A repetitive second act
• An overly convoluted plot
• A runtime that could stand to be shorter

Hunt is, to put it mildly, an ambitious film. The new South Korean drama is a spy thriller set during the 1980s that follows the perspectives of two security officials as they try to determine the motives of the other. Structurally and narratively, the film bears more than a few similarities to similar double-agent thrillers like The Departed and Infernal Affairs . In terms of its visuals and scale, however, Hunt is built more like a blockbuster thriller in the same vein as films like The Bourne Ultimatum or Argo .

Chaos (and style) reigns

A confusing story, a promising debut.

That’s a difficult balance for any film to attempt, especially one that’s helmed — as Hunt is — by a first-time director. It’s a wonder then that Hunt works as well as it does. Under the direction of Squid Game  star Lee Jung-jae, who also appears in the film as one of its two leads, Hunt is a breakneck, unpredictable spy thriller. Over the course of its 131-minute runtime, the film’s story often wobbles and shakes beneath the weight of its own convoluted ambitions, but it never falls apart.

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The fact that Hunt doesn’t ever fully crumble is a testament to not only the film’s engaging visual style, which feels heavily indebted to well-known auteurs like Paul Greengrass and Park Chan-wook, but also its relentless pace and well-choreographed set pieces. Those who make it through the film’s many unnecessary twists and confusing detours will likely find themselves taken aback by the power of Hunt ’s surprisingly satisfying final third.

Based on a screenplay by Lee and Jo Seung-Hee, Hunt opens in absolute chaos. The film’s first sequence follows Park Pyong-ho (Lee), the Foreign Unit chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung), the KCIA’s Domestic Unit chief, as they and their team members all scramble to stop an assassination attempt on South Korea’s president. Throughout the sequence, they race through the streets and buildings of a 1980s version of Washington D.C. that has been taken over by protests.

As far as opening sections go, Hunt ‘s quickly establishes its relentlessly fast pace, which it maintains for the entirety of its runtime, as well as its frenetic, primarily handheld visual style. Unlike many Paul Greengrass imitators, though, Lee never disregards his audience’s sense of geography or continuity merely for the sake of heightening the film’s chaotic aesthetic.

Hunt ‘s action sequences, including its opening assassination attempt in D.C., are all comprised of quick cuts and handheld shots, but it’s thanks to Kim Sang-Bum’s precise editing that they never become incoherent or mind-numbingly confusing.

The same cannot be said for Hunt ’s plot, which contains so many layers and false leads that it would be difficult to keep track of even in a film that didn’t move as fast as it does. However, Hunt moves at a shockingly brisk pace from start to finish and frequently delivers key pieces of information in such a quick, offhand manner that it can become easy to get utterly lost in the film’s web of secrets and lies. Those who pay close attention will likely be able to stick with the film, even in the moments when its story becomes too confusing and twisty for its own good, most of which come during Hunt ’s bloated second act.

In its desire to be as bombastic and action-packed as possible, Hunt ’s climactic sequence also revolves around a few too many twists. The scale of the film’s final set piece, in specific, becomes too unwieldy for its director and editor to handle, and it introduces the kind of shoddy CGI effects that are absent from the rest of Hunt . Even when it seems like Hunt is veering dangerously close to going off the rails, though, the film manages to correct itself with a final 10 minutes that are not only shocking, but also admirably acidic and bittersweet.

Hunt is further grounded by the lead performances given by Lee and Jung. As the film’s rival security chiefs, both actors are saddled with the unfortunate responsibility of having to conceal many of their characters’ motivations and suspicions while still giving performances that feel real and multidimensional. Fortunately, Lee and Jung manage to pull that tricky task off, delivering performances that feel distinctly drawn and conflicted in ways that help firmly root Hunt ’s convoluted narrative in their characters’ opposing perspectives.

Hunt ’s successes ultimately prove just how strong of a film Lee could direct should he ever manage to get his hands on a script that’s a bit tighter and cleaner. As it is, Hunt is a largely impressive directorial debut, one that establishes Lee as a surprisingly confident and technically proficient filmmaker. It’s an adrenaline-fueled slice of genre filmmaking that never quite reaches greatness, but still delivers a ride that is never anything but entertaining and enthralling.

Hunt is now playing in theaters and on demand.

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The international breakout star of the last 12 months is Lee Jung-jae. The South Korean actor became a global sensation for his role as Seong Gi-hun in Netflix's Squid Game. For his next move, Lee will make his feature directorial debut with the espionage thriller, Hunt.

Lee stars as Park Pyong-ho, a KCIA Foreign Unit Chief who is tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy known as Donglim. Along with KCIA Domestic Unit Chief Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung), he learns that the spy within their agency is leaking top-secret information that threatens national security. As they search for clues, Pyong-ho and Jung-do begin to investigate each other as they slowly learn about a plot to assassinate the South Korean president.

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Story: It's the year 1983 and South Korea is a military dictatorship. The secret service KCIA is supposed to be restructured and efforts are focused on tracking down North Korean spies. In addition, the two KCIA agents Park Pyeong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Kim Jeong-do (Jung Woo-sung) have to perform damage control when an attempted assassination during a visit of the South Korean president in the USA almost succeeded. A lot of things are still unclear about the background, but the agents do know that secret information must have been leaked. Eventually, a high-ranking North Korean scientist comes forward asking for help to desert. In return he is willing to give away the identity of the mole in the KCIA with the codename Donglim. But he will only reveal the name after he arrives in South Korea. As a previous intel of his turns out to be true, the KCIA wants to intercept him in Japan during a trip with a North Korean delegation. But things go pretty wrong. As a result, the head of the KCIA instructs Kim and Park independently of each other to find the mole within their ranks by all means necessary. Because there is bad blood between the two agents, they start putting each other under the microscope. It turns out that neither one of them has a clean slate, but is one of them really the traitor? While the agents make life difficult for each other, they also have to prevent another planned assassination on the president.

Review: "Hunt" is the kind of espionage-action-thriller, you don't expect to see anymore these days. That's not just because the movie is set in the 80s and has a compelling political background, it's also because the action scenes are a mixture of 80s/90s HK cinema and the style of Michael Mann's "Heat". On top of that, we get a game of cat-and-mouse which is urged forward with an incredibly high pace and - not just because of its level of suspense - is reminiscent of "Infernal Affairs" . In short, with regards to what this espionage thriller aims to be, it is pretty successful and easily manages to outshine seemingly highly-polished movies like "Steel Rain 2" . The action is rough, yet neatly arranged, and one twists follows the next without giving us much time to breathe. This is the kind of cinema we didn't get to see for a long time now, and you basically don't have to say much more to clearly recommend this movie. However, this doesn't mean that the flick wouldn't have any problems.

However, you shouldn't always take the movie too seriously. There are twists at every corner, and agents turn out to be double or triple agents or even more than that. Who actually does what for what reason seems to change every minute. This makes it hard for us to warm up to either of the two main characters, because you constantly believe that one of them has to be the villain. But whoever this role actually falls to keeps changing, and even though Jung Woo-sung ( "Innocent Witness" ) apparently seems to fulfill this function, things are not as easy as they seem at first when we see his shock about the events during the Gwangju massacre in a flashback to his time as a soldier. Lee Jung-jae, who also co-wrote the script, plays with this uncertainty about who we should be rooting for. Maybe it's because of this intended ambiguity that the characters are not as fleshed out as you would have liked them to be, but the seething rivalry and the hatred between Park and Kim, two guys who in fact are not that different from each other, make them come across pretty human.

The amount of action you get here is a little surprising, especially compared to other Korean espionage-thrillers, and the cat-and-mouse game between the two characters, - who inevitably have to have some skeletons in their closets as KCIA agents, but still somehow managed to preserve something like a conscience - gives "Hunt" a special touch. Of course, you shouldn't expect any realism when it comes to the action, as agents tend to survive collapsing multistorey buildings. But it fits the atmosphere that Lee Jung-jae creates here. As mentioned before, you eventually can't take the countless twists and turns seriously anymore, but you reach a point at which you are already so invested in the movie that you don't feel like rolling your eyes. The finale is also fittingly epic, even though the ending of the showdown might be a little frustrating due to the historical backdrop. Despite some points of criticism, Lee Jung-jae still managed to turn his debut behind the camera into something impressive and he created a highly entertaining and gripping espionage-thriller with plenty of action, a movie which easily manages to outshine the majority of the competition.

'Hunt' movie review: A relentlessly paced, high-voltage thriller

When I heard Squid Game actor Lee Jung-jae was making his directorial debut, I was curious to see whether he would make a serious, emotionally overpowering drama or a thriller. Having seen what he has done in his maiden feature, Hunt, I can report that the answer is the latter. I must also say I was amazed because Hunt feels like the work of someone with enough directing experience under his belt.

Set in the 80s against the backdrop of the North Korea-South Korea tensions, Hunt is an espionage thriller loaded with many nail-biting scenarios, considering it revolves around the operations of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA—now known as the National Intelligence Service). Lee Jung-jae is Park Pyong-ho, the chief of the foreign unit of KCIA, and Jung Woo-sung is Kim Jung-do, head of the domestic one.

There is no question of Jung-jae’s skills as a filmmaker as he sure knows how to hook us: a mere five minutes into the film, we get an assassination attempt followed immediately by a wild shootout. This prologue also gives us a sense of the underlying tension in the Park-Kim dynamic, which worsens as the film progresses, ultimately getting to a point where the two get into a high-intensity fistfight, the details of which fall under the spoilers section.

At least three fiery gun battles had me going, ‘Wow!’ Hunt is restless from the get-go. While not throwing its characters into gunfights and explosions, it pauses for office politics and spy games. But these are just short intervals —too brief that you yearn for some breathing space to ponder the complex behind-the-scene machinations before moving on to the following action setpiece.

However, it’s also admirable that these sequences bring forth new plot revelations instead of existing just for the sake of spectacle. It produces the cumulative effect of watching an offspring of The Departed and The Bourne Ultimatum. Or imagine the high moments of a Christopher Nolan thriller—say, the opera sequence of Tenet or the SWAT ambush in The Dark Knight— dialled up to a hundred, complete with a rousing background score.

But Hunt is also that film which, despite its placement against the backdrop of Korean and U.S political games, asks you to suspend your disbelief in multiple places. There are instances where I wondered why the agents of a powerful intelligence organisation didn’t take safety precautions before running into gunfire. Perhaps this was an intentional creative choice to increase the body count—and Hunt registers a large number in that department.

Moreover, as someone with only a rudimentary understanding of Korean history, I wondered whether the makers followed the details of actual events to a T or whether they had opted for some creative liberties. I believe the latter is the case. After all, this is a work of entertainment, and Hunt delivers that in spades.

With a film like this, occasional doubts are natural when the pacing is relentless—the screenplay hops furiously from one plot development to another. One also questions the inclusions of a few last-minute twists that, while succeeding at catching you off guard, seem like afterthoughts. But these are minor shortcomings in an otherwise well-made film, even if everything doesn’t always make sense.

With the number of characters and events populating the film, all complimented by hyperkinetic camera work, Hunt often feels like an epic war movie. We get gun battles that rival those in a Michael Mann film or any Johnnie To thriller in terms of the pure exhilaration they offer.

It also succeeds remarkably at creating the same sense of urgency we saw in the first three Jason Bourne films, particularly Ultimatum. I was surprised that the film managed introspective moments between the onslaught of all the chaos and mayhem.

It helps to have talented actors like Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung in the forefront because they sell their characters’ angst, confusion, and rage so well. Hunt is, for me, one of the best action thrillers of the year, warts and all.

Film: Hunt Director: Lee Jung-jae Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin, Heo Sung-tae Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video Rating: 3.5/5

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Review: lee jung-jae’s spy thriller “hunt” paints familiar picture of 80’s korean politics.

“Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae’s directorial debut “Hunt” offers action-packed rehash of established historical tropes from South Korea’s authoritarian period.

By Anthony Kao , 28 Nov 22 06:11 GMT

A year after rocketing to global fame with Squid Game , Korean actor Lee Jung-jae re-emerged on the global cinematic scene with his directorial debut, Hunt . This espionage thriller screened at 2022’s Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals, and is one of this year’s top-grossing movies at South Korea’s domestic box office. However, critical reception to the movie was tepid among non-Korean critics. Many found the movie’s historical context too inaccessible, so much so that Lee Jung-jae slightly edited the movie for further international screenings in response.

From the perspective of someone who does have knowledge about South Korea’s authoritarian period though, Hunt feels quite familiar–too familiar, in fact. While it’s action-packed and cinematographically competent, the film is like a “greatest hits” compilation of historical tropes from 1980’s South Korea, one that fails to innovate upon the era’s historiography. How and why is this the case, and what does this bode for South Korean cinema?

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Hunt opens in Washington DC, where its two protagonists are trying to protect South Korea’s President (unabashedly modeled after military dictator Chun Doo-hwan ) on an overseas tour. Park Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) head the Korean Central Intelligence Agency’s (KCIA) foreign and domestic units, respectively. Despite ostensibly serving the same master, they’re rivals—each with their own fiefdoms of spies.

When an assasination attempt disrupts the President’s tour, the fragile balance between Park and Kim begins to unravel. The KCIA realizes there’s a mole named “Donglim” in their midst, and the two men begin hunting for the mole in each others’ turf. A cat-and-mouse game replete with gunfights, torture, secret codes, and car chases ensues, bumping along a bevy of plot twists staged with slick visual form.

Referencing the Known

If you’re acquainted with South Korean history and political cinema , this plot progression becomes a walk down memory lane. With its Washington DC beginnings, Hunt evokes 2020’s The Man Standing Next , another KCIA thriller which also leaned into Cold War ROK-US relations as a subplot. The film then showcases American complicity with South Korea’s dictatorship through CIA agents plotting to prop up President Chun, a Korean leftist refrain that’s been explored across numerous dramas and movies across the past few decades. Torture scenes and guilt over the 1980 Gwangju Massacre come up next, evoking movies like National Security and Peppermint Candy . Even killing President Chun in the name of democracy and justice is well-tread ground, as seen through the 2012 movie 26 Years .

History buffs may also notice how Hunt references numerous real events from multiple years across the early 80’s, beyond the Gwangju Massacre. There’s a shoutout to the 1983 defection of North Korean MiG-19 pilot Lee Ung-pyeong (played with gusto by Hwang Jung-min), and a reimagining of the 1983 Rangoon Bombing in which North Korean agents plotted to assassinate Chun Doo-hwan. The film also offers other easter eggs that non-Korean audiences might miss. For instance, Park Pyong-ho and Lee Jung-do’s given names are rough homonyms for “peace” and “justice”, respectively, which bear relevance later in the movie. Besides some implications around North Koreans meddling with South Korea’s democratization movements ( a common right-wing refrain that doesn’t usually appear in left-leaning Korean cinema) though, Hunt breaks absolutely no new ground in its retelling of history.

Political K-Movie Comfort Food

With all these tropes and references, Hunt becomes comfort food for history junkies and Korean politics nerds. Alas, this isn’t necessarily healthy. Comfort food might prove inaccessible to those lacking requisite memory and cultural context, and too much comfort food can leave one in a complacent stupor.

Since the country democratized in the early 1990’s, South Korea has been able to make numerous films that actually have a societal impact, and thus live on in the national (and international) consciousness, because they break new ground when it comes to viewing the recent past. For example, 2005’s The President ’s Last Bang sparked lawsuits over its depiction of former President Park Chung-hee, whilst 2017’s A Taxi Driver offered a fresh humanistic view on the Gwangju Massacre and led to the rediscovery of its previously anonymous titular character.

While Hunt is a competent piece of entertainment, it’s hard to see it making the same kind of waves in civic discourse. This isn’t exclusive to Hunt though; the past three years haven’t seen any Korean political movies on the order of something like A Taxi Driver . Perhaps that’s due in part to COVID-19’s dampening effect on Korean cinematic screenings, or maybe Korean filmmakers have simply exhausted 1980’s democratization and should migrate to less-trod pastures. Whatever the reason, anybody who values impactful Korean political films should hope that productions more innovative than Hunt are waiting in the wings.

Hunt (Korean: 헌트) —South Korea. Dialog in Korean. Directed by Lee Jung-jae. First screened May 19, 2022 at the Cannes Film Festival. Running time 2hr 11min. Starring Lee Jung-jae, Jung woo-sung, Jeon Hye-jin.

Hunt will have its North American release starting December 2, 2022.

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Review | Cannes 2022: Hunt movie review – Korean spy thriller directed by and starring Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae proves bombastic and muddled

• This film, set in South Korea during the turbulent 1980s and ’90s, draws on real events from that time, including a presidential assassination
• The director, Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, throws everything at this story, but it comes across as confused and messy

Serving as his own producer and top-billing star, Lee seems hell-bent in throwing all the historical references, deafening pyrotechnics or narrative twists he could get onto the screen and seeing what will stick.

Sadly, not much does. Hunt is eventually brought down by its messy storytelling, which would confuse international audiences – such as those who watched the film at the Cannes Film Festival last week – without a basic understanding of the South Korean political situation in the late 1970s and early ’80s, when the film is set.

Lee plays Park Pyung-ho, a top-ranking officer at the Korea Central Intelligence Services. After a botched attempt to bring in a defecting North Korean nuclear scientist, Park’s team is suspected of being infiltrated by a Pyongyang-sent mole. Once wielding unchecked powers within the agency, he finds himself investigated by his nemesis, the soldier-turned-spy Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung)

True to the state of things in South Korea in the early ’80s, a period notorious for military dictator Chun Doo-hwan’s bloody repression of dissent and internal purges within his ranks, Park is in turn ordered to investigate Kim’s team. Both men soon charge at each other in gusto, with nearly every row between them ending up as a man-on-man fight or mass brawl.

The whole thing spirals further when it emerges there’s a bigger “hunt” going on, with the subject being the president himself. Through flashbacks and scenes depicting the people they meet on the sly while off duty, we slowly get to see both men actually following their own agendas, wishing to protect the country by saving its spirit rather than its horrendous head-of-state.

Drawn from various real-life historical incidents – such as the assassination of authoritarian ruler Park Chung-hee by his own spymaster in 1979, and attempts on Chun’s life in Burma in 1983 – Hunt is just the latest in a long line of films seeking to readdress that particular traumatic period of South Korean history. What might things have been like, Lee seems to want to ask, if people fulfilled their duty and did the right thing regardless of the perils that entails?

But what film-goers would like to ask is probably how Hunt would have turned out if Lee allowed a more qualified screenwriter to finesse a script which would make less sound and more sense. As it stands, Hunt is more a vanity project than a full-formed product from a veteran player.

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Where to watch

Directed by Lee Jung-jae

Two rivals, a hidden truth.

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.

Lee Jung-jae Jung Woo-sung Jeon Hye-jin Heo Sung-tae Go Youn-jung Kim Jong-soo Jeong Man-sik Lim Hyung-kook Jung Kyung-soon Jeong Jae-seong Song Young-chang Hwang Jung-min Lee Sung-min Yoo Jae-myung Kang Kyung-hun Im Sung-jae Jeong Seong-mo Paul Battle Kim Hak-seon Oh Man-seok Andreas Fronk Lee Chae-eun Song Duk-ho Jang Seo-kyung Kim Chan-hyung Kim Hyeong-beom Yoon Jeong-sub Choi Woo-jun Park Sung-woong Show All… Jo Woo-jin Kim Nam-gil Ju Ji-hoon Cha Rae-hyung Lee Han-ju Go Seo-hee Son Kyoung-won Lee San-ho Cha Woo-jin Park Min-jeong Son Seung-beom Moon Yoo-seong Jonathan Ehren Groff Joe Nowell Josh Newton Moon Jung-dae Lee Ga-kyung Choe Min

Director Director

Lee Jung-jae

Producers Producers

Lee Jung-jae Han Jae-duk Cho Jae-sang Park Min-jeong

Writers Writers

Lee Jung-jae Jo Seung-hee Lee Young-jong Baek Gyeong-yun

Editor Editor

Kim Sang-bum

Cinematography Cinematography

Assistant director asst. director.

Park Sin-woong

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Hong Jeong-in Kim Jin-sun

Lighting Lighting

Lee Seong-hwan

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Lee Eui-tae Kim Byung-seo Lee Jong-woo

Production Design Production Design

Art direction art direction.

Jang Hee-sun Im Se-jin

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Park Seung-hyeon

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Kim Tae-eui Chang Ick-jea Ryu Jae-hwan Jung Seok-jae Yuk Gwan-woo

Stunts Stunts

Heo Myeong-haeng Kim Seon-wung Han Dae-ryong Lim Hyo-woo

Composer Composer

Cho Young-wuk

Sound Sound

Jung Gun Kim Chang-sub

Costume Design Costume Design

Cho Sang-kyung Choi Yoon-sun

Makeup Makeup

Sanai Pictures Artist Studio

South Korea

Primary language, spoken languages.

Portuguese English Korean Japanese

Releases by Date

19 may 2022, 27 jul 2022, 15 sep 2022.

• Theatrical limited

04 Nov 2022

02 dec 2022, 10 aug 2022, 26 aug 2022, 01 sep 2022, 22 sep 2022, 20 oct 2022, 17 dec 2022, 02 feb 2023, 18 may 2023, 29 sep 2023, 10 feb 2023, 20 jul 2023, 21 jun 2023, 27 jul 2023, releases by country.

• Theatrical MA15+
• Theatrical 16
• Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
• Premiere Cannes Film Festival
• Physical DVD, Blu-Ray & 4K UHD
• Physical 16
• Theatrical IIB

Russian Federation

• Theatrical 18+ A-One Films
• Premiere 15 Gangnam, Seoul
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical น15+
• Theatrical limited 15

131 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Randa ★★½

Hunt is: A ction Packed V isually harsh E ntertaining enough R ewatching is ABSOLUTELY needed A proof that Lee Jung Jae can Direct a film. G reat production design. E verything got real confusing real fast.

Really good beginning though!

Final Score : 68% 🍏

LEE JUNG JAE OPPA

Review by SupremeLemon (지존레몬) ★ 26

*I was going to save much of what I said here for my essay on The Host, but whatever; I can always write them up again. The ideas will be better written and more polished when the time comes.*

"In the last 75 years, we've done everything we possibly could to destroy the economy of North Korea, and at the same time, with which I agree, we did everything we could to enhance and improve the economy and the culture of South Korea." - President Carter on North Korea

Hunt expects viewers to have some knowledge about the historical and political context surrounding the setting of the film, so I'm going to provide the context and then explain why I…

Review by davidehrlich ★★½

An energetic yet hopelessly convoluted espionage thriller that doesn’t tell a story so much as it chronically bumps into one, “Hunt” — the directorial debut of “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, who also co-wrote the script and plays the lead role — begins with a premise so primed for spy-vs-spy mind games that you can almost hear John le Carré licking his lips from beyond the grave.

It’s the early 1980s, North and South Korea are locked in a paranoia-driven cold war, and the Gwangju Uprising (during which hundreds, if not thousands, of South Korean students were killed while demonstrating against martial law) is still fresh in everyone’s minds. In fact, the massacre has left such a stain on the…

Review by Madelyn ★★ 1

The loudest movie I’ve ever napped in

Review by Finn 🐛 ★★★ 5

23:30 I get into the last-minute line for the premiere. There are about 100 people in front of me. I’m starting to think I’m not getting in

23:45  The line starts moving. I make it through

23:55 Lee Jung Jae is on the red carpet with his cast and crew. Five minutes before the movie starts

23:58 People are starting the stress the fuck out. The ticket machines make that horrible beeping sound as we try to cram into the doors. 

23:59 I’m inside, Jung Jae is walking in on the big screen. Tension is high I finally find my seat

00:00 As the last people sit down the lights are turned off. In great relief, we clap to the…

Review by Bijan ★ 1

And then this happened! And then- and then - AND thEN!!! And then... BUT BUT BUT ...... TWIST omg SHE shot WHOOO??? And then WHO did WHATv?? BANG BANG BNAG WHOOOOOOOOOOOO squid game man

Review by Julia Grohlo🇨🇦 🇻🇳 ★★½

Bro, it's incredible how much I understood nothing, so many huge incoherent plots during 2 hours. Lee Jung-jae is good at holding a camera and filming great action scenes, but when 4 of you work on the script and absolutely no one understands what he's writing, it's funny. A twisted thriller based on the geopolitical context of Korea in the 80s, with a strong focus on domestic politics and espionage. The problem is you don't know who's who, and in the end it's just a propaganda film in a big competition to see who can get the biggest pair of balls between South and North Korea a little too Americanized stuck in a brothel and I'm almost disappointed there wasn't a cameo from Liam Neeson who came to save everyone "Calm down communists" with his angry look.

Asian movies

Review by Matt Neglia ★★½ 1

HUNT thrillingly moves from one tremendous action scene to the next with little room to breathe or allow its convoluted story to make sense. Exciting filmmaking by Lee Jung-jae with lots of bullets, betrayals and explosions but emotionally hollow despite its serious intentions. Past a certain point, I couldn’t tell you what it was about anymore but I was still thoroughly engaged by the filmmaking.

Review by Justin Decloux ★★★

Slick throwback to 90s action political thrillers, with tons of double-crossing, assault weapon-filled action scenes, and glowering leading men. I was gripped from the start, but then my attention waned due to everyone's motivations being so opaque, and the action was a little too hectically muddled. There's an interesting thesis about how no matter what you're doing, even if it's for the right reasons, people on top are corrupt and will destroy you without thinking, but it kinda gets lost in the constant shuffling and torturing people for information.

Review by HKFanatic ★★★★ 1

Hot damn, now this is the kind of Korean thriller I've been missing. Taking advantage of the international success of "Squid Game" to make the leap to the director's chair seemed like a logical enough career move for Lee Jung-jae, but I wasn't expecting the leading man to go this hard his first time out: it isn't long into "Hunt" before he's re-staging the shootout from "Heat" in the middle of 1980's Tokyo!

The film follows two top agents in South Korea's CIA attempting to find a mole within their ranks; with its Cold War setting and intense paranoia, it almost feels like a super-charged episode of "The Americans" with bursts of hyper-violence. I'm not sure if I was fully…

Review by More_Badass ★★★★ 6

Lee Jung-jae puts his decade-plus of Korean superstar good will and post-Squid Game blank check to superb use: a blistering directorial debut that’s the cinematic equivalent of a le Carré-x-Michael Mann heroic-bloodshed flick.

Hunt demands attention as its inter-KCIA mole hunt stretches from DC to Tokyo to Bangkok, unfolding via a bitter cloak-&-dagger rivalry between agency chiefs Park (Jung-jae) and Kim (K-action veteran Jung Woo-sung). This is an espionage thriller first and foremost - an intricate tangle of secret identities, cyphers, double-crosses, interrogations, torture, real historical events mixing with fictional spycraft, and twists upon twists - where the cat-&-mouse intrigue regularly erupts into violence and kinetic action choreographed by Train To Busan’s stunt coordinator.

Compared to genre contemporaries like The…

Review by Allison M. 🌱 @ Tribeca Festival ★★★

Political thrillers are right up my alley, but this was very stiff except for a couple of exciting but isolated scenes. Subtext and motivation were missing from the characters; we had this for Squid Game  (which stars Lee Jung-jae), but not Hunt . Not every actor should choose to direct.

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The 20 best Korean shows on Netflix to watch now

The streamer carries tense thrillers and airy rom-coms in spades.

Netflix (3)

From Parasite winning the Oscar for Best Picture to BTS topping charts across the world, there's no doubt that South Korean culture is upping its global footprint. The influence of its movies and TV shows is apparent in directors making waves in Hollywood and the overwhelming popularity of juggernaut series like Squid Game . In addition to those pop culture cornerstones, there’s much more Korean media ready to stream now. 

Below, Entertainment Weekly explores the best Korean shows on Netflix , including massive hits like Hellbound and Extraordinary Attorney Woo as well as hidden gems like D.P. and A Killer Paradox . This list has something for everyone, whether you’re looking for sweeping romances ( Our Beloved Summer ), teen dramas ( Boys Over Flowers ), or tense thrillers ( Kingdom ). 

Here are the 20 best Korean shows on Netflix right now.

Crash Landing on You (2019–2020)

If you've ever been recommended a K-drama on Netflix, it was probably Crash Landing on You. The series stars Son Ye-jin as South Korean businesswoman Yoon Se-ri, who gets blown to the North Korean side of the DMZ by a tornado while paragliding. Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), a North Korean military captain, discovers Se-ri and decides to hide her until he can figure out a way to get her back to her own country. This show is the perfect K-drama starter because it includes so many of the genre’s signatures: fantastical story elements (a tornado, while paragliding!), sweeping romance, and silly/sweet melodrama. 

Where to watch Crash Landing on You : Netflix

Cast: Son Ye-jin, Hyun Bin, Seo Ji-hye, Kim Jung-hyun

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022–present)

If the whimsy of Crash Landing on You catches your interest, you should take a look at Extraordinary Attorney Woo . Park Eun-bin stars as Woo Young-woo, an autistic attorney hired by a major law firm in Seoul. Young-woo’s experience on the spectrum gives her a unique perspective when preparing for cases, but her legal career gets complicated by emerging family secrets and even a chance at love. The show is in a similar vein to American series like Monk or The Good Doctor — which was itself a remake of a K-drama — in which a misunderstood protagonist’s specific disorder gives them a unique problem-solving genius.

Where to watch Extraordinary Attorney Woo : Netflix

Cast: Park Eun-bin, Kang Tae-oh, Kang Ki-young, Jeon Bae-soo, Jin Kyung, Ha Yoon-kyung, Joo Jong-hyuk, Joo Hyun-young

Squid Game (2021–present)

Maybe whimsy isn't your thing and you'd prefer something that’s more of a nail-biter — and one of Netflix's most-watched shows ever. Squid Game stars Lee Jung-jae as a divorced dad with a gambling problem who, along with hundreds of others in similarly dire financial straits, gets invited to compete in a series of challenges for a chance at a debt-erasing fortune. The catch: The winner is also the lone survivor. What follows is a darkly entertaining study of desperation, greed, and the human psyche , painting morality (and mortality) as a strategy game.

Where to watch Squid Game : Netflix

Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, Kim Joo-ryoung

Related content: First look at Squid Game season 2 teases a deadly game of cat and mouse

Kingdom (2019–2021)

Set in the 17th century three years after the Japanese invasion of Korea, Kingdom is an epic period piece that’s equal parts political thriller and zombie horror . Crown Prince Lee Chang and his staff discover a mysterious plague is taking over the countryside as a conspiracy threatens his path to the throne. With the help of his loyal aides, the prince must find a way to stop the virus from spreading while also protecting their seats of power. Things get messy and deadly from there, as hordes of the undead descend on the land. At this point, it’s hard to make a zombie show that feels original, but Kingdom passes that test by throwing sword-fighting and royal intrigue into the mix ( The Walking Dead could never).

Where to watch Kingdom : Netflix

Cast: Ju Ji-hoon, Bae Doona, Ryu Seung-ryong, Kim Sung-kyu, Jeon Seok-ho, Kim Hye-jun, Kim Sang-ho

Related content: The 10 best zombie movies on Netflix right now

Hellbound (2021–present)

If you're here for creepy content, you need Hellbound on your list. One of EW's best horror series on Netflix , it "explores how the unwanted entry of the divine into everyday life can become not miraculous but horrifying." That unwelcome entity is an “angel” who lets certain people know they’re going to hell, followed by a trio of supernatural thugs making that fate a reality in a savage, bloody fashion. The show isn’t so much about higher power but human nature in the face of a higher power, unpacking belief, factionalism, and moral conflict while grappling with existential questions (plus plenty of gore, of course). 

Where to watch Hellbound : Netflix

Cast : Yoo Ah-in, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jeong-min, Won Jin-ah, Yang Ik-june

Our Beloved Summer (2021–2022)

Are you feeling a bit nostalgic for your first love? One show that might scratch that particular itch is Our Beloved Summer , about an estranged couple forced back into each other's lives when the documentary they made 10 years ago in high school suddenly goes viral. The wistful coming-of-age story features Parasite alum Choi Woo-shik and Kim Da-mi as the central couple. This is the show you put on when you're studying for your degree in yearnalism. 

Where to watch Our Beloved Summer : Netflix

Cast: Choi Woo-shik, Kim Da-mi, Kim Sung-cheol, Roh Jeong-eui

Boys Over Flowers (2009)

Boys Over Flowers is a throwback, but it’s considered one of the most influential K-dramas of all time, making superstars out of its cast, including Pachinko star Lee Min-ho . It’s essentially the South Korean equivalent of The O.C. phenomenon in the United States. The series centers on Geum Jan-di (Koo Hye-sun), a spunky teen who saves a young man from taking his own life. When it's discovered that the boy in question was severely bullied by the heir to the Shinhwa Group fortune, Gu Jun-pyo (Lee Min-ho), Jan-di is offered a scholarship to their high school to ease public outrage at the company. There, Jan-di soon becomes entangled with Jun-pyo and his friends, launching 25 episodes of drama, romance, and intrigue. 

Where to watch Boys Over Flowers : Netflix

Cast: Koo Hye-sun, Lee Min-ho, Kim Hyun-joong, Kim Bum, Kim Joon

A Killer Paradox (2024–present)

SONG KYOUNG SUB/Netflix

Parasite 's Choi Woo-shik scores another show on this list with A Killer Paradox . He plays Lee Tang, a convenience store worker who discovers he has a knack for taking out bad guys after accidentally murdering a serial killer during a robbery gone wrong. Meanwhile, Son Suk-ku ( D.P. ) plays the dogged detective who is on to Tang's murderous game. This "well-constructed, devious little thriller" definitely gives Dexter vibes and shines because of its great writing — and because it isn’t afraid to hang out in the moral gray area. 

Where to watch: A Killer Paradox : Netflix

Cast: Choi Woo-shik, Son Suk-ku, Lee Hee-joon, Hyun Bong-sik

Related content: The 15 best serial killer shows streaming on Netflix right now

Parasyte: The Grey (2024–present)

Things get gruesome in Parasyte: The Grey , which adapts Hitoshi Iwaaki's manga about a parasite that infects and kills humans before turning their heads into grotesque amalgamations. Jeong Su-in (Jeon So-nee) develops a "unique relationship" with the specimen who fails to control her. EW’s writer promises that this series should "certainly satisfy," fans of body horror , but there are other rewarding themes as well, namely humanity's ability to persevere in the face of crisis. 

Where to watch Parasyte: The Gre y: Netflix

Cast: Jeon So-nee, Koo Kyo-hwan, Lee Jung-hyun

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Business Proposal (2022)

Business Proposal is not your average rom-com series. Employing the fake dating gone wrong trope, Shin Ha-ri (Kim Se-jeong) steps in for her best friend Jin Young-seo (Seol In-ah) on a blind date, only to find out the suitor is the CEO of her company, Kang Tae-moo (Ahn Hyo-seop). Tae-moo is on the hunt for a wife so he can stop being harassed by his grandfather, but marrying a subordinate isn't going to go over well with the board if Ha-ri doesn't come clean. Business Proposal 's webtoon origins are obvious in the comic-style animations that accent the show and imbue the story with a distinct charm. 

Where to watch Business Proposal : Netflix

Cast: Ahn Hyo-seop, Kim Se-jeong, Kim Min-kyu, Seol In-ah

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All of Us Are Dead (2022–present)

Would anyone from your high school homeroom be part of your zombie apocalypse team? The kids at Hyosan High have to battle a zombie outbreak and still navigate teenage politics in the webtoon-adapted Netflix series All of Us Are Dead . Having to fight the undead with your bully is rough, but these teens are smart, putting their heads together to create ingenious ways to evade and destroy the living corpses coming after them. This fast-paced horror series does not shy away from the gore, nor does it shrug off effective storytelling in favor of cheap thrills.

Where to watch All of Us Are Dead : Netflix

Cast: Park Ji-hu, Cho Yi-hyun, Yoon Chan-young, Lomon, Yoo In-soo, Lee Yoo-Mi

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D.P. (2021–2023)

D.P. (Deserter Pursuit) is a pulse-quickening action series that takes a hard look at South Korea’s mandatory military service. Private Ahn Joon-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Corporal Han Ho-yeol (Koo Kyo-hwan) are tasked with finding deserters but end up discovering a lot more about the bullying and hazing that causes soldiers to abandon their duties. Season 2 transitions to the perspective of senior officers, turning an eye towards corruption, LGBTQ discrimination, and how much responsibility the military bears for unsanctioned violence within its ranks. It's a tough but riveting watch that asks thorny questions with complicated answers. 

Where to watch D.P. : Netflix

Cast: Jung Hae-in, Koo Kyo-hwan, Kim Sung-kyun, Son Suk-ku

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Physical: 100 (2023–present)

Physical: 100 is for everyone who loves the strategy and gameplay in Squid Game but could do with less death and lower stakes. It's a reality show in which 100 bodybuilders and gym rats compete in physical challenges of balance, agility, endurance, strategy, and willpower. Players are eliminated after every challenge until only one person remains and wins the grand prize of around $240,000. Two seasons of the highly bingable competition are ready to stream on Netflix, and it’s a favorite among K-pop idols, including Jung Kook from BTS . 

Where to watch Physical: 100 : Netflix  

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Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)

Twenty-Five Twenty-One is a multi-generational story that starts in 2021 when Kim Min-chae (Choi Myung-bin) quits ballet and runs away to her grandmother's house. There, she discovers her mother Na Hee-do’s (Kim Tae-ri) diary from her teenage years as an aspiring fencer, detailing the first love that changed her life. Twenty-Five Twenty-One has a lot of earmarks of a fun high school/college romance series, but it packs a heavier emotional punch than you'd expect (consider keeping tissues nearby as Hee-do and Yi-Jin's story unfolds). Bonus: The series also features XO, Kitty star Choi Min-young.

Where to watch Twenty-Five Twenty-One : Netflix

Cast: Kim Tae-ri, Nam Joo-hyuk, Kim Ji-yeon, Choi Hyun-wook, Lee Joo-myung, Choi Min-young

It's Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)

It's Okay to Not Be Okay earned an International Emmy nomination for Best TV Movie or Miniseries, thanks in part to its moving portrait of healthcare workers. It centers on Ko Moon-young (Seo Yea-ji), a children’s book writer with antisocial personality disorder, as she moves back to her hometown to pursue a relationship with Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun), an employee at a psych ward and the sole caretaker of his autistic older brother. In simple terms, it’s a story about vulnerability and healing old wounds, but what makes it stand out is the way it destigmatizes the reality of mental illness. 

Where to watch It's Okay to Not Be Okay : Netflix

Cast: Kim Soo-hyun, Seo Yea-ji, Oh Jung-se, Park Gyu-young

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Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (2021)

If you love the idea of an ambitious city girl finding small-town romance when her metropolitan life implodes, step right up for Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha . This adorable romance spent 16 weeks in Netflix's global top 10 when it debuted, following a dentist Yoon Hye-jin (Shin Min-a) to the seaside village of Gongjin after her life in the city falls apart. There, she sets up a new practice in the community and picks up a romance with local fisherman and handyman Hong Du-sik (Kim Seon-ho) while also embedding herself with the eccentric citizens. This is a feel-good small-town transplant rom-com for when you need a lighthearted pick-me-up. 

Where to watch Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha : Netflix

Cast: Shin Min-a, Kim Seon-ho, Lee Sang-yi

Little Women (2022)

If you’re here for a South Korean take on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott , you may be surprised when you tune in. This Little Women is still about sisterhood, but in the form of a dark thriller. Things turn deadly when the three Oh girls become entangled in a case of a missing 70 billion won ($72.5 million) that pits them against the wealthiest family in Korea. The sisters have to band together to stay alive, find out what happened to the money, and attempt to build a better life for themselves. There are clear thematic similarities to the series' namesake novel, but it’s a wild reinvention of the material. This is the K-drama for people who thought the original Alcott story could’ve used a bit more murder and corporate intrigue.

Where to watch Little Women : Netflix

Cast: Kim Go-eun, Nam Ji-hyun, Park Ji-hu

Mr. Sunshine (2018)

Mr. Sunshine follows Eugene Choi (Lee Byung-hun), who was born a slave during the Joseon dynasty and escaped to America in 1871. He returns to Korea years later as a Marine Corps officer and falls in love with Go Ae-shin (Kim Tae-ri), a nobleman's granddaughter. Their romance is challenged by Ae-shin's grandfather and gets further complicated when Eugene discovers Japan's plans to colonize Korea. Now, he must pick up arms to defend the country that previously looked down upon him. Mr. Sunshine is one of the most ambitious K-dramas Netflix has to offer, a complicated study of identity that also takes its military intrigue — and its romance — seriously.

Where to watch Mr. Sunshine : Netflix

Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Kim Tae-ri, Yoo Yeon-seok, Kim Min-jung, Byun Yo-han

Sweet Home (2020–present)

kim Jeong Won/Netflix 

Based on the Naver webtoon of the same name, Sweet Home is a fantasy-adventure series centering on Cha Hyun-su (Song Kang), an orphan who takes refuge in a dilapidated apartment complex after his entire family is killed in a car accident. When terrifying monsters begin terrorizing the city, Hyun-su and his outcast neighbors must come together to protect the only home that they have left. Sweet Home maintains the comic book feel of its source material but carves out its own live-action identity as a story about chosen families and overcoming loss. 

Where to watch Sweet Home : Netflix

Cast: Song Kang, Lee Jin-wook, Lee Si-young, Park Gyu-young, Go Min-si, Kim Hee-jung

A Time Called You (2023)

A Time Called You marries romance and time travel when Han Jun-hee (Jeon Yeo-been) accidentally goes from 2023 to 1998 and wakes up as a different person, Min-ju. Jun-hee is trying to figure out how the phenomenon happened — and get back to her own body — when she meets Si-heon (Ahn Hyo-seop), who bears an uncanny resemblance to her deceased boyfriend. Given all the body-swapping and actors in dual roles, this is not a show you can watch in the background, but that’s a strong point in its favor. A Time Called You also concocts fun twists on a handful of genres, playing with romance, sci-fi, and even murder mystery.

Where to watch A Time Called You : Netflix

Cast: Ahn Hyo-seop, Jeon Yeo-been, Kang Hoon

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Related Articles

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Becomes the Blood Hunt's Biggest Threat

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The following contains major spoilers for Blood Hunt #3, on sale now from Marvel Comics.

Marvel's Blood Hunt has completely upended Miles Morales' life. Now, the young Spider-Man is finally ready to start fighting to get it back.

As the newly minted Lord of All Vampires prepares to take his plan for world domination to the next level in the pages of Blood Hunt #3, some of Earth's Mightiest Heroes are struggling to keep their own plan for salvation from falling apart. This is largley due to the sudden appearance of Miles Morales who, after having been turned into one of the creatures of the night for himself, has become one of the deadliest threats imaginable. Thankfully, his fellow heroes are more than capable of freeing him from his bloodthirsty daze, and once they have, Miles is more than ready to get back into the fight as Marvel's least likely vampire hunter all over again.

Venom Still Has a Special Bond With One of His Most Obscure Hosts

Venom is being reunited with one of his old hosts courtesy of Marvel's vampires, making this chapter of Blood Hunt especially horrifying.

Blood Hunt #3

• Written by JED MACKAY
• Art by PEPE LARRAZ
• Colorist MARTE GRACIA
• Letterer VC's CORY PETIT
• Design by JAY BOWEN
• Cover by PEPE LARRAZ and MARTE GRACIA
• Variant Cover Artists DAVID BALDEÓN, JESUS ABURTOV, GABRIELE DELL'OTTO, JESÚS SAIZ, KAEL NGUY, and PEACH MOMOKO

The events of Marvel's Blood Hunt were kicked off entirely unwittingly by n one other than the Daywalker himself - Blade . After striking down the living personification of evil known as the Adana, Blade's psyche took a turn for the dark side. Though none of his fellow heroes knew the truth until it was too late, Blade decided to form his own legion of vampires in secret, one which he unleashed upon the rest of the world only after ensuring that the skies were darkened ahead of their onslaught.

In the time since, Miles has become a part of some truly unexpected partnerships, primarily by teaming up with Dracula . Despite having little to nothing in common, Dracula is fully aware of how capable of a hero Miles is. Dracula is also aware of the fact that the young Spider-Man has a close enough working relationship with both Blade and Bloodline for it to matter, something which both of them are hoping will help in the long run.

Daredevil Proves Just How Lethal Marvel’s Kingpin of Crime Is

Marvel's Kingpin of Crime is back in New York City, and he is getting his hands bloodier than ever before to protect his territory.

Blade and Dracula are far from the only classic Marvel vampires who have come out of the shadows to take part in Marvel's Blood Hunt . In the pages of Avengers #15 by writer Jed MacKay and artist C.F. Villa, Earth's Mightiest Heroes are taking on an entirely different breed of vampire army. Instead of facing off against Blade or his superpowered generals, the Avengers have once again come face-to-face with one of their world's original vampiric supervillains in the form of the infamous Baron Blood .

Blood Hunt #3 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel Comics

• miles morales
• miles morales: spider-man

Humane, the creator of the $700 Ai Pin, is reportedly seeking a buyer

Humane, the company behind the much-hyped Ai Pin that launched to less-than-glowing reviews last month, is on the hunt for a buyer, Bloomberg reported , citing anonymous sources.

The company has reportedly priced itself between $750 million and $1 billion, and the sale process is in the early stages, Bloomberg cited the sources as saying.

Humane has never revealed an official valuation at any of its funding rounds, though The Information reported last year that its valuation was $850 million.

Humane did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

A pin in a haystack

Founded in 2017 by former Apple executives  Bethany Bongiorno  and  Imran Chaudhri , Humane had raised around $230 million  from backers such as Microsoft, Qualcomm Ventures, Marc Benioff, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman before any part of its product was even publicly revealed.

The company finally  unveiled its product last June : Called Ai Pin, it’s a wearable gadget with a projected display and AI-powered features. The reveal kicked off a period of pre-orders in the U.S., but the launch was delayed before the Ai Pin finally dropped in mid-April.

The Ai Pin sports a unique form factor and is packed with sensors, generative AI and a small projector that can beam a display onto any surface — such as your hand.

But with a price tag of $700, plus a recurring $24 monthly subscription that gives the user a phone number and unlimited data to power as many queries as they can muster, the Ai Pin seemed to be a tough sell in a cash-strapped consumer market. In some ways, the device seemed like a solution in search of a problem, and many of its initial reviews said the Ai Pin doesn’t really do much more than what you can already do with your smartphone.

High-profile YouTuber and reviewer Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, gave a particularly damning review, which many said could single-handedly kill the Ai Pin before it had properly launched.

Throw into the mix complaints around battery life and overheating issues, not to mention other emerging (and cheaper) smart gadgets such as Meta’s Ray-Bans and Rabbit’s R1 , and it has seemed increasingly unlikely that Humane would be able to gain any kind of meaningful foothold in the wearable market.

Also, it’s worth noting that the company’s chief technology officer (CTO),  Patrick Gates , who joined Humane in 2019 after 13 years at Apple, left the company in January alongside 4% of the workforce.

All in all, things haven’t seemed rosy at Humane for a while, so the news that it might be seeking a buyer isn’t hugely surprising. Whether any suitor is willing to bite, though, is very much in the balance.

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