“Big Deal” Theatrical Poster

Director: Choi Yoon-jin
Cast: Yoo Hae-jin, Lee Je-hoon, Byron Mann, Son Hyeon-ju, Choi Young-Joon, Kim Ki-Hae
Running Time: 104 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Watch any Korean movie from the last 30 years, and it won’t be too long before the ubiquitous green soju bottle (usually several of them) makes an appearance, the alcoholic beverage that’s remained the number one best selling hangover inducer in the world for almost as long. While soju has always played an integral part in Korean cinema – from the tipsy conversations of practically every Hong Sang-soo movie ever made, to the comedic mishaps in the likes of Daytime Drinking – Big Deal is certainly the first production that can label itself as a soju themed financial drama.

Spanning 6 years from 1997 to 2003, the plot takes its inspiration from the real-life story of Jinro Soju, which was acquired by Hite with a little help from Goldman Sachs in the late 90’s (check the back of any soju bottle in your local Korean restaurant or Asian supermarket, and chances are you’ll find it was made by Hite Jinro). For obvious reasons, in Big Deal the name of the soju brand is the fictional Gukbo, with the narrative opening in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis. With Gukbo facing bankruptcy, the company president tasks the loyal financial director to work with a consultant from a global investment firm, with the latter promising they have the strategy to get Gukbo out trouble.

The CFO is played by Yoo Hae-jin (Yadang: The Snitch, Exhuma), bringing his typical mix of cheerful amicability to the role while hiding a sad past, with his unwavering dedication to the company costing his relationship with his wife and daughter. His dedicated company man is played off against the consultant he’s paired with, played by Lee Je-hoon (Escape, Time to Hunt), who after living overseas for 10 years views working as simply a way to make money, and can’t quite fathom why Hae-jin is so passionate about securing the future of Gukbo. But secure it Je-hoon he does, finding a way to offer the company a 5-year reprieve from debtors, while hiding the fact that behind the scenes he’s using his access to Gukbo’s financial records to set up a takeover by the investment firm he works for, the plan being to then sell it off for a significant profit.

Financial thrillers are a tricky proposition (see Herman Yau’s A Gilded Game for the perfect example of how not to do one), however in recent years Korean cinema has occasionally looked to the Asian Financial Crisis era for inspiration, with 2018’s Default also set during the period. While Default told the bigger picture of Korea’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund when the country was on the brink of bankruptcy, comparatively Big Deal feels like a more intimate portrayal, instead using the crisis as a framework to focus on the relationship between Hae-jin and Je-hoon. Indeed there are times when the movie it most recalls is Pretty Woman, just minus the woman part. Je-hoon and Hae-jin’s relationship echoes the dynamic between Richard Gere as the detached businessman buying up faltering businesses, and Ralph Bellamy as the traditionalist, unwilling to let go of the company he’s dedicated his life to.

Does the world really need a Korean take on a side story from a 1990 Hollywood romcom? The odds feel stacked against it, however for the most part Big Deal works as an engaging character drama. It also feels like a distinctly Korean topic (a comment I also made about The Match that was similarly released in 2025 – could it be the Korean film industry is shifting back to more local tastes after years of targeting the global market?), as there’s no escape from the fact it’s the story of a soju company experiencing financial trouble, and the question of if it can be saved or not. It’s not going to be immediately relatable subject matter for overseas audiences, and there’s a lot of the inevitable soju talk of how “the taste is bittersweet, just like life”, however Hae-jin and Je-hoon make for a likeable pair, and their onscreen chemistry works well.

Outside of the pair though other characters don’t fare quite as well, with a supporting cast that occasionally dips into caricature territory. The number one guilty party is the casting of Steven Seagal regular Byron Mann (Belly of the Beast, A Dangerous Man), who plays one of the Chinese American executives in the investment firm Je-hoon works for. Wearing a smarmy villainous grin for the entirety of his time onscreen, liberally using the word “f*ck” in every other sentence, and generally hamming it up to pantomime like levels, there’s a glaring lack of subtlety to his portrayal that makes it impossible to take him seriously. As a trivial side note, while Big Deal marks Mann’s debut in a Korean production, he notably played the bad guy in the Park Joong-hoon starring Hollywood movie American Dragons from 1998.

The directorial debut of Choi Yoon-jin, who previously wrote the scripts for 2013’s Steel Cold Winter and 2014’s Office, for his first time helming a production Yoon-jin is also expectedly behind the script of Big Deal. There’s some welcome humor interspersed amongst the talk of bonds and creditors, with one particularly fun poke at how many feel soju brands all taste the same, as Je-hoon struggles to describe the taste of one of Gukbo’s latest concoctions. Due to his character having lived in New York for 10 years, the script understandably gives him plenty of lines in English, which unfortunately come across as a little too phonetic to feel authentic. While I always admire actors tackling a language that isn’t their own, when the result is that it reminds us precisely that it’s an actor delivering lines in a language they’re not used to, for the audience it breaks the immersion in the story, and that’s sadly the case here.

Despite these minor issues though, for the most part Yoon-jin displays an assured hand for his first time in the director’s chair, and shows a welcome level of restraint in keeping the runtime to a brisk 104 minutes. In a climate where it often feels like everything needs to be shown rather than simply suggested, it’s admirable that we never have to sit through any flashbacks of Hae-jin back when he was still living with his wife and daughter (and I confess I was expecting them!), instead letting his facial expressions show the regret he feels. There’s a simple joy in seeing an actor be allowed to act, and trust that their acting is enough to tell the story without explaining it through exposition (or throwing in pace deadening flashback sequences), and it’s refreshing to see such an approach in a directorial debut.

Admittedly some of the symbolism feels a little on the nose, none more so than how the likes of the company president and villainous lawyers all insist on sipping glasses of whiskey rather than soju. At one point I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of them declared “soju is too much of a working-class drink for our educationally superior tastes!” Thankfully the implication is kept visual, and at least most of the whiskey sipping is done by the stellar supporting cast. Son Hyun-joo (The Phone, Hide and Seek) is suitably entitled as the self-serving company president who inherited its riches from his parents, with almost every line he speaks related to how he can make himself richer. While his character may be two dimensional, he still imbues it with a few distinctive quirks, with the constant opening and closing of his Motorola flip phone to express frustration fleshing out his character in a way the script fails to do.

Surprisingly Big Deal opts for more of a low key ending over any kind of corporate histrionics, a decision that works in its favour, with Yoon-jin using a post-credits sequence to show the passing of time from the closing scenes, one which offers up a satisfying coda on the simplicity of finding happiness. Transcending the financial drama label to end up more as a story of friendship and life lessons learnt, much like a bottle of soju after a long day at work, Big Deal hits the spot. Best of all, it’s only the former that leaves you with a headache the next day.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10

The post Big Deal (2025) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Time to Hunt” Theatrical Poster

Director: Yoon Sung-hyun
Cast: Lee Je-Hoon, Choi Woo-Sik, Ahn Jae-hong, Park Jung-Min, Park Hae-Soo, Cho Seong-Ha, Choi Hee-Do, Jeon Woon-Jong, Won-hae Kim, Kang Ji-Gu 
Running Time: 134 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

Prior to its release, Korean production Time to Hunt was one of the prime examples of a movie impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for a cinematic release in February, it was quickly pulled due to the lockdown that was implemented while Korea dealt with the peak of its outbreak. Producer Little Big Pictures subsequently struck a deal with Netflix, which would have seen it hit on April 10th for 190 countries. This release was delayed when the international sales representative, Contents Panda, filed an injunction due to already making distribution deals with over 30 of those countries themselves. A Korean court ruled in favour of Contents Panda, and thankfully both parties were able to come to a mutual agreement, resulting in an international Netflix release on April 23rd. A happy ending for all involved.

While we’ve had to wait a little under 2 weeks to finally watch Time to Hunt, for fans of director Yoon Sung-hyun, we’ve had to wait 10 years since the release of his 2010 debut, Bleak Night, a refreshingly accomplished film-academy graduation project. Bleak Night focused on the dynamics of its three male leads, in a masterful tale that plays backwards from when one of them commits suicide, and Time to Hunt maintains the core theme of friendship between three male leads. Like in Bleak Night, Sung-hyun again enlists Lee Je-hoon as his lead. Je-hoon has gone on to become a leading man himself in the decade since, headlining the likes of historical drama Anarchist from Colony and pulp noir Phantom Detective, so it’s a welcome sight to see the pair re-team as director and star for Sung-hyun’s sophomore go in the director’s chair.

Time to Hunt takes place in a not-too-distant future Korea, but to call it a sci-fi doesn’t feel appropriate. The Korea portrayed here is far removed from the futuristic visions seen in the likes of Yesterday and Natural City. Instead we’re introduced to a dystopian Korea, its booming economy a distant memory, left with a currency that’s hardly worth the paper it’s printed on. Seoul has become a shadow of its former self, the once bustling buildings becoming dilapidated, and everything shrouded in a constant smog that clings to the ground. Homelessness is everywhere, and whole blocks that used to be full of local businesses are now boarded up and derelict, a layer of grime caked to the city. It’s a unique landscape for Korean cinema, and not a vision of Seoul many directors would dare to imagine, perhaps because it echoes the upheaval the country went through during the 70’s aggressive push to modernise.

We meet Je-hoon as he’s released from a 3-year stint in prison for robbery, a crime he committed with his brothers in arms, played by Choi Wooshik (Parasite, The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion) and Ahn Jae-hong (Fabricated City, Missing You). When the trio reunite Je-hoon is keen to get his hands on the stash they got away with 3 years ago, but with the currency devalued to the point that most places only accept US dollars, it turns out there’s hardly anything left. With a dream to escape to rural Taiwan and live the simple life, Je-hoon convinces the pair to pull off one last job – an illegal casino which is run by gangsters. Another of their friends works for the casino, played by Park Jung-Min (who also starred in Bleak Night, and can be more recently seen in Tazza: One Eyed Jack and Svaha: The Sixth Finger), so together the quartet put the wheels in motion to execute the perfect heist.

When you think of Korean heist flicks, the breezy capers like The Thieves and The Swindlers may be the ones that come to mind, but Sung-hyun keeps things a world away from those glossy outings. The approach here can almost be described as lo-fi, with the camera more interested in the emotions of the characters than the intricacies of the heist itself. It’s a sweaty, adrenaline pumping sequence, one which has faint echoes of the heist from Michael Mann’s Heat (the part before everything goes to hell), as the dash to get their hands on the money locked away in the safe plays out against a small window of time. Sung-hyun shows himself to be a master of ramping up the tension is this scene, as the sense of the characters battling not to panic is a tangible one, and that tension is built upon as events progress.

Indeed the heist turns out to only be the trigger for what Time to Hunt is really about. Having also taken the casinos hard drives, so any footage that may have captured their faces can be destroyed, it turns out the drives contain a lot more than just security footage. With files containing details of money laundering schemes and the names of the powerful people who have a hand in them, a bounty hunter is called in to track them down. Played by Park Hae-soo (Master, Pirates), his character steals the show, and turns the narrative into an entertainingly different direction that feels like a cross between The Terminator and The Hitcher. Sung-hyun’s use of light and shadow gives an almost noir style look, with parts of Hae-soo’s frame always partially obscured in darkness, making him feel like an almost supernatural force that’s after our protagonists.

Time to Hunt’s bait and switch reveals itself to be an unpretentious chase flick, as Je-hoon, Wooshik, and Jae-hong find themselves pursued through the desolate streets of a near-future Korea by a ruthless hunter, one who seems to firmly believe that the thrill is in the chase. Far from becoming an action thriller though, what transpires feels much more like a horror movie, as Hae-soo’s relentless pursuing through the night results in some genuinely tense setups. As a comparison, think The Terminator compared to Terminator 2. The first was a gritty chase flick that often felt like a horror. The second was also a chase flick, but felt more about the excitement than it did the tension. Sung-hyun’s focus here seems to be purely on how much tension he can wring out of each scene, and he does the job well, backed up by a pulsating synthesiser score that perfectly complements the narrative.

The other element that deserves a mention is the decision to include guns, lots of guns. Korean society has very strict gun laws, which is also reflected in its cinematic output. Korean gangster movies usually involve a lot of blood-soaked stabbings, beatings with steel poles, and plenty of grievous bodily harm, but rarely does anyone pull out a gun. Sung-hyun takes advantage of the near-future setting to create a Korea where it’s possible to acquire firearms through underground dealers, and as a result the duration of Time to Hunt is spent with almost every character running around with automatic weapons and shotguns. It’s a decision which sees Time to Hunt feature some worthy shootouts. Like the heist, they may be more lo-fi than gratuitous and bombastic, but the scenes fit the overall feel, and bring with them a legitimate sense of danger from every bullet fired.

If any criticism could be levelled against Sung-hyun’s latest, it’s that it’s a tad overlong, and could have benefitted from a little trimming. Particularly in the epilogue, a poignant imagined scene is extended in a way which doesn’t make complete sense, but again it’s not the first time for Sung-hyun to keep things intentionally ambiguous. Time to Hunt is also the first movie I’ve seen for a long time which has literally no key female cast members. Apart from Wooshik’s Mum who receives less than 5 minutes of screen time, this is very much a male dominated movie. While I have no issue with it myself, I’m sure there’ll be viewers out there who’d have liked to have seen a little bit of female representation.

These are minor gripes though, and after waiting for a decade Sung-hyun has proven himself as a director that can mix creativity with characterisation, and style as well as substance. I’ll call it early and say that Time to Hunt may be my favorite Korean movie of 2020, and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be a gritty chase movie through a dystopian vision of Korea. I only hope we don’t have to wait another 10 years for Sung-hyun’s next movie.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10

The post Time to Hunt (2020) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Bleak Night” American DVD Cover

Director: Yoon Sung-hyun
Writer: Yoon Sung-hyun
Cast: Lee Je-Hun, Seo Jun-Young, Park Jeong-Min, Jo Seong-Ha, Bae Jae-ki, Lee Cho-hee
Running Time: 117 min.

By HKFanatic

Over the last decade, Korean cinema has made great strides into the Western market thanks to its tendency for big-budget commercial spectacle and ultra-violent revenge movies. “Bleak Night” is not one of those films. This nuanced and haunting story about three high school friends began as a film school project for writer/producer/director Yoon Sung-hyun, but soon gained global attention after appearing in international film festivals. And it’s no wonder why: “Bleak Night” is beautifully structured and powerfully acted. It’s not just one of the best films of the past three years but one of the best Korean films of all time. This is cinema that leaves a mark.

The plot focuses on three boyhood friends: Lee Je-hoon stars as the defacto leader Ki-tae; Seo Jun-young as his longtime confidant Dong-yoon; and Park Jung-min as ‘Becky,’ the relative newcomer to the group. While at first these three Junior year students seem thick as thieves, soon enough the cracks and strains begin to show. Their relationship is tested by schoolyard posturing, petty jealousy, and a general inability – or unwillingness – to express themselves. Through the lens of his high school setting, director Yoon Sung-hyun is able to tackle a wider array of issues including bullying, suicide, and the pressure society places on individuals to fit in.

“Bleak Night” shares some thematic lineage with Japanese films like “All About Lily Chou-Chou” and “Blue Spring,” which also focus on bullying and teenage violence. “Bleak Night” is perhaps more restrained than those films, at least in terms of what it depicts onscreen, but it is no less affecting. It’s clear that Lee Je-hoon is a young actor destined for greatness; while he’s serving his mandatory military service at the moment, “Bleak Night” and his supporting turn in “The Front Line” show he has the potential to be one of Korea’s leading actors. He takes a character who could have easily been loathsome in Ki-tae and makes him three-dimensional, even sympathetic. Likewise, it’s fair to expect great things from Seo Jun-young, who makes a strong impression as the ‘conscience’ of the group.

The screenplay to this film has a unique ‘middle/beginning/end’ structure that can be a little difficult to follow at first, but it’s one other reason why the film rewards multiple viewings. The unconventional structure helps to underline how tragedy and memory can make time impermanent; towards the end of the film, Seo Jun-young’s character seems to float between the past and present as he remembers the friendship he once had. As in “All About Lily Chou-Chou,” a vacation trip is both an oasis of happiness amidst the pain of the characters’ lives and the beginning of where it all went wrong for these young people. Director Yoon Sung-hyun’s use of post-industrial locations – slate gray apartment complexes, fuming smokestacks, and empty trainyards – depicts a different side of South Korea than we typically see in the movies. The extremely minimalist use of music throughout “Bleak Night” also adds to the film’s stark, sobering atmosphere.

5 Points’ Pictures DVD release includes the option for multi-colored subtitles, which helps in a film where characters’ dialogue frequently overlaps. In addition, there is a short essay from the director, detailing his inspiration for the movie, as well as bios for the director and cast. The picture quality is superb despite being in standard definition; it’s reassuring to see a prestige foreign film like this treated with a respectful localization. If you’re a fan of the ‘teen angst’ genre or simply in search of a good, thought-provoking drama, then “Bleak Night” should not be missed.

HKFanatic’s Rating: 10/10

The post Bleak Night (2010) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.