‘Project Wolf Hunting’: an ultraviolent Korean nonsense, as wildly funny as it is imperfect in its narrative

If you want to play it safe, at least when it comes to movies and series, always bet on South Korea. The powerful industry of the Asian country does —almost— everything right: What do you want narratives that keep you sitting on the edge of your seat and without blinking for a couple of hours? No problem. That yours are impossible twists and structures in four acts worthy of a master class? They’ve got you covered. What do you prefer twists to traditional genres? Total calm, because they are going to nail it.

However, the curious thing about the South Korean genius is precisely that it allows them to emerge gracefully and positively surprising situations in which they seem to have all the elements against them and choose to tackle dramatic, formal and conceptual challenges that are the fodder of disaster. But, even when the foundations of a project are unstable and doomed to collapse, manage to land on both feet after performing a trick during the fall.

This theory, not free of exceptions, can be demonstrated again with the insane ‘Project Wolf Hunting’; Kim Hong-sun’s debut in the feature film after his work in ‘La casa de papel: Corea’ with which the director serves us on a grotesque tray of broken bones, crushed cartilage and liters of blood a cocktail of action, horror and science fiction as wild and entertaining as it is absurd regarding its history and characters.

Not a hit

I was able to enjoy ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ at the last edition of the Sitges Festival, where, like a good part of the Auditori, I embraced the self-awareness of Kim’s proposal and I surrendered to the mundane pleasures of his orgy of death and destruction condensed into an obviously irregular 122 minutes.. A necessary procedure to be able to savor without hindrance a candy that, otherwise, could be indigestible.

Let’s be honest: whoever goes to the film looking for a new sample of the usual good hand of South Korean screenwriters to round off plots and protagonists, will leave tremendously disappointed. And it is that the script of this eccentricity, in addition to faltering slightly when looking for some consistency, it is populated with flat and interchangeable characters which, deep down, are little less than cannon fodder. But best of all, none of this matters.

Because one does not surrender to the charms of ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ looking for dramaturgical excellence, but rather to be dazzled by one of the most violent, goofy and out-of-this-world shows that have passed through our theaters in a long season. One that only needs a ship loaded to the top with prisoners, police officers and the occasional special guest who will turn the ship into the rosary of dawn to unleash jaws and unleash the most complicit applause.

Despite the fact that its narrative shows visible inconsistencies in rhythm —more than compensated for in its third act—, the levels of gore, the liters of artificial hemoglobin, the explicit special effects, its remarkable technical invoice and a spirit that seems inherited from the most deranged 90s actioners make this imperfect rarity one of the best and funniest experiences I’ve had recently at the cinema.

Because, ultimately, ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ is nothing more than a tremendous contradiction that It would not have been possible without the magic of South Korea.

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‘Project Wolf Hunting’: an ultraviolent Korean nonsense, as wildly funny as it is imperfect in its narrative

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by Victor Lopez G. .