‘Hunt’ Review: Trust No One in This Unpredictable Korean Spy-vs.-Spy Game
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film CriticOn Oct. 26, 1979, South Korean president Park Chung-hee was assassinated by the chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency — a coup that ended the autocrat’s 16-year grip on a country that has wrestled with corruption and scandal ever since.
The still-mysterious circumstances of that inside job (which inspired 2005’s “The President’s Last Bang”) gives “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae ample license to hatch all kinds of wild conspiracies in Cannes-selected directorial debut “Hunt,” a twisty, action-packed political thriller — one that keeps you guessing even as it spirals into ever-crazier realms — about renegade agents, shifting agendas and a nutty plot against Park’s successor. “Hunt” takes place four years after Park’s death, in 1983, as rival security chiefs try to outmaneuver one another with the putative goal of protecting the new leader.
Since a KCIA chief killed the previous prexy, however, it’s plausible that an insider might try to off his replacement — and since this guy’s rotten as well (Google “Gwangju Massacre”), that makes the movie’s allegiances especially tricky to untangle.
Who should we consider to be the movie’s hero: the person scheming to unseat this despot or the one risking his life to save him?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.
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