The South Korean government after one failed attempt have come up with a full proof plan to extradite all dangerous criminals back from the Philippines. They will move all prisoners at once in a purposely adapted ship, a floating prison to transport the most dangerous of cargos. The ship will be under constant radar, with a team dedicated to keep a watch on it as it makes the voyage. Heavily armed Police Officers outnumber the criminals. Keeping a constant and tight control on them, but one well known and perhaps the most sadistic criminal of them all has other ideas. He unites the prisoners in a synchronized well planned brutal escape allowing them to take over the ship piece by piece, deck by deck, forcing the police into defensive little pockets. Nevertheless, unknown to them as they continue on their rampage they have unwillingly unleashed something more evil than even them from the lower deck. All it wants to do is destroy whoever or whatever gets in its path. Criminal or Police it doesn’t matter as this unstoppable being works its way through the ship carving its way through good guy and bad guy alike, with the same brutal bloody evil force, what is this being and why is it here now, with them?
From writer director Kim Hong-Sun (The Chase) comes the explosive blood-soaked action thriller with a smidge of sci fi horror. You can see that he has had a lot of influences while writing the film, but for me the extreme violence reminds of one of my favourite Japanese directors work, the great Ryuhei Kitamura who directed the amazing Versus from 2000, which is still one of my all-time favourite films. All the cast are on top notch form, but the standout performance for me is from Seo In-Guk who plays the most violent and ruthless of the criminals. From what I can see he is totally cast against type and this really works as he has a lot of fun with the role. He is very charismatic and has a great screen presence. The film is not for the faint hearted as the blood and gore comes quick and fast like the action of the film. I don`t know what it is about Korean film makers that they make the most violent of films so watchable. Once the first act is done from the escape the movie rolls to the finale at a rapid pace. I loved every minute of it, the violence, the blood, the complete insane choreography of gunplay, the hand to hand and the blades are just a marvel to watch. There`s a lot of The Raid in here as well, everything about the film is well executed. Definitely Korean cinema at its best, but a film that I`ve not heard too many people making a fuss of. Which is a shame because for me it is a film that I would`ve loved to have seen on the big screen.
Take the violence of films you know and crank that up by 100% and you might have an idea of what to expect from Project Wolf Hunting. It is such an enjoyable full-on blood-soaked gem. Due for release on the 10th April on blu ray, I for one will be adding it my ever growing collection. Loved it and thoroughly recommend it.
