PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Yoon Sung-hyun, director of the film Time to Hunt.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

At the 70th Berlinale, Yoon Sung-hyun brings in Berlinale Special his dystopian thriller about a group of friends trying to find a better future in the worst way possible and being hunted by a mysterious killer as a consequence to their actions. Yoon Sung-hyun explains how despite the film being a mix of genres including a gangster movie, it is essentially a story about a friendship that means family. The director then comments how positive was the Oscar to Parasite in terms of the positive attention that brought to all South Korean cinema.

Time to Hunt:  When Jun-seok is picked up by his buddies Ki-hoon and Jang-ho after three years in prison, it takes him a while to understand how much South Korea has changed following the recent financial crisis. The glittering world of consumerism that he left behind has turned into a dark, post-capitalist desert, in which young men don’t really make any plans for the future anymore. The won is now worthless anything, and the cash loot from their last heist has disappeared into thin air. However, Jun-seok has brought a dream with him from his time in prison that he is determined to hold onto: he longs to escape with his friends to Hawaii, to the warmth and the turquoise sea, to start a new life there. To this end he persuades them to join forces for a risky raid on a casino. The trio has nothing to lose. The robbery succeeds. But what they didn’t expect was that it would incur the wrath of infinitely more powerful criminals. A chase through this dystopian world ensues. In Sa-nyang-eui-si-gan, Yoon Sung-hyun successfully transposes the classic thriller genre into the near future, at the same time delivering a powerful visual reckoning with the social realities of present-day South Korea.

To discover more about the film, click here.