Review: There will be blood: ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ brings it in buckets
If it’s blood you’re thirsting for — in buckets and fountains and passageways decorated with the stuff as if Jason Voorhees were possessed by Jackson Pollock — your ship has come in. The seas may be mostly calm, but the Korean action-slash-monster movie “Project Wolf Hunting” (emphasis on the slash) finds waters choppy enough for your mayhem needs.
The setup is “Con Air” on a boat: A whole lotta Korean criminals have been rounded up in the Philippines and are loaded onto a cargo ship back to Korea. One of the cops on board is the grizzled veteran captain; another is a young female officer (played by Jung So-min) — no more characterization granted than that. One of the crooks is the baddest of the bad (Seo In-guk; thou shalt know him by his tattoos); another is a conspicuously handsome young man (Jang Dong-yoon), an expressionless one, at that.
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Of course the prisoners will get loose, that’s a given, and then the kill-fest will begin in earnest. The twist is there’s something else on board that will pose a bigger, gorier, grislier problem than even a ship full of murderers with insufficient adult supervision. Let’s just say, cinematically, it’s a much more efficient violence-delivery device than even this horde of homicide-loving yahoos.
The plot doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense, but does it matter? If you’re on this cruise, you’re here for the bruises (and copious arterial sprays). One wishes the action were more thought through — there are many, many instances of armed killers and cops just standing there and watching as their friends get their skulls smashed in — and a hint of characterization would have helped. No moment on this anything-but-love boat has the impact of, say, the seasickness sequence of “Triangle of Sadness,” but slaughter stans will get their butchery bellyfuls.
'Project Wolf Hunting'
In Korean with English subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes
Playing: Starts Oct. 7, CGV Cinemas Los Angeles and CGV Cinemas Buena Park
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