Hunt: Lee Jungjae’s spy thriller goes for breakneck bombast

When the South Korean series Squid Game became a global hit for Netflix in September 2021, it was inevitable that we’d be seeing more from the show’s lead actor, Lee Jungjae. Lee makes his directorial debut and stars in Hunt, a barrelling juggernaut of an action feature packed with even more thrillingly violent action scenes and jaw-dropping shocks than Squid Game managed across its nine episodes. Unfortunately, in all its excitement and ferocity, Hunt occasionally forgets to keep things comprehensible or believable.

It’s 1983, four years after real-life South Korean president Park Chunghee was assassinated by the chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). Fictional KCIA foreign unit chief Park Pyongho (Lee) leads the operation to stop an attempt on the current president at a concert hall in Washington. It’s an ambitious opening that features fine stunt work, a hefty body count, breakneck pace and violent spectacle fit to cap most films – and sets the tone for what follows. Park is soon gathered with domestic unit chief Kim Jungdo (Jung Woosung), and the pair are ordered to find a mole named Donglim who’s apparently been working within the KCIA for years. Park and Kim have their own scores to settle, given that the former was violently interrogated by the latter years ago, leaving Park with permanent nerve damage. They both suspect each other and set to work uncovering leads.

Beneath its bombast this is a rudimentary spy-game thriller, the trope of spies versus moles mounted with more depth and subtlety in, for instance, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2012), and with greater clarity in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise. In Hunt, there are so many flashbacks and mysterious references to past operations as to make it almost unintelligible, and at 130 minutes it feels long – despite having a pace and vitality many lesser action films would kill for. Believability also buckles when a key witness recovers in hospital and we see a sniper assassinate the unlucky bedridden spy from atop a nearby building through a conveniently giant window. The ensuing firefight is among the film’s most gripping scenes, but suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

If one can overcome such gripes, there is fun to be had watching Hunt – one street gun battle is almost as heart-stopping as the famous set-piece in Heat (1995), while the Bangkok-set climax is a booming spectacular of explosive carnage and furious gunplay worth waiting for. Lee’s monster shoot-out spy thriller is an auspicious debut; one hopes he’ll jettison the convoluted adornments next time.

► Hunt is in UK cinemas from 4 November.