Project Wolf Hunting

Nobody ever had fun on a ship in the movies and they probably never will, unless the Love Boat eventually gets adapted to the big screen. There will certainly be no love, fun, or safe spaces on this cruise. The Korean Justice Department procured a cargo ship to secretly ferry ten highly dangerous extradited criminals from the Philippines. The bad news is the bad guys have a plan to hijack the ship. The worse news is there just so happens to be someone more dangerous than them on board. Things will get spectacularly messy in Kim Hong-sun’s Project Wolf Hunting, which opens Friday in theaters.

There was an “incident” at the airport the last time the cops brought back a group of extraditees, so they want to keep this one on the down-low. Unfortunately, the sinister, serpent-like Park Jong-doo managed to replace several crew-members with his thugs, who will easily take control of the ship. The surviving cops think they are merely facing a Die Hard-type situation, but it gets worse.

Unbeknownst to the cops and criminals alike, a strange and savage humanoid is also somewhere on the ship. The shadowy cabal pulling all the strings brought a replacement doctor on-board to keep it safely sedated, but in all the confusion, it inevitably rouses, proceeding on an awesomely gory rampage.

It bears repeating there are absolutely no safe spaces in this movie. Wolf Hunting is the kind of film in which people are bludgeoned to death with their own limbs. It is all about action, energy, and adrenaline. Yet, there are a few characters that are sufficiently vivid, most viewers will feel bad when they meet an unfortunate end. Seriously, don’t get too emotionally involved.

Instead, buckle up for chaos and carnage. Kim brings both hard, fast, and unrelentingly. There is not a lot of subtlety to Wolf Hunting, but you have to give Kim credit for the way he successfully marries the violence of the action and horror genres. Even though he is heavily made-up, Choi Gwi-hwa is impressively imposing as “Alpha,” Wolf Hunting’s version of “The Shape.” Based on his physical work here, he could easily become a Korean Kane Hodder. Plus, Jung So-min really does a lot to keep viewers caring as diligent Det. Lee Da-yeon.

Wolf Hunting is not playing paddy-cake. This is a crazy action ride. It also shows Korean cinema will start eating the compromised Hong Kong film industry’s lunch, snapping up their market-share for over-the-top action films. Kim proves they now deserve that business more. Highly recommended for fans who can appreciate (and withstand) its take-no-prisoners aesthetic, Project Wolf Hunting opens Friday (10/7) in New York, at the AMC Empire.