Project Wolf Hunting

Back in the autumn of 1998 i worked in the harbour of my hometown in Sweden. It was for a company called Odal who took care of wheat, corn and other cereal. I had my own room where i did water samples especially for wheat and corn, and each time the machine have read the water levels in certain samples i would write them down for hand in a document. So in this small room i sat there taking water samples, and for the salary i got for it wasn´t too bad. Sometimes when we had leaks in pipes where they run the corn and wheat, we would have to take a shovel and put the product somewhere else since you could not pack it lying on a floor. Not just because of the dirt but you could not use the product in case the corn or wheat were affected from a quality perspective. It may not be the most fun job i ever had but trying different jobs is good for you. Plus with shoveling spilled wheat you got some great exercise as well. Speaking about the harbour there are several films that reminds me of harbour work. Most films doesn´t take place in the harbour for a long time, but the 1991 action film Double Impact with Jean-Claude Van Damme did have a couple of really cool scenes in an harbour. If you have not heard of this film, it basically tells the story of Twin brothers Alex and Chad, who were seperated as babies when their parents were brutally murdered in Hong Kong. As an adult Chad ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ) is running a sucessfull martial arts dojo in Los Angeles with his Uncle Frank ( Geoffrey Lewis ). Chad finds out from Frank during a meeting that he´s not his real uncle, that he was his father´s friend and bodyguard in Hong Kong 25 years ago. Frank takes Chad back to Hong Kong claiming it´s a buisness trip, but he is actually reuniting the twin brothers for the very first time, to revenge the people who were behind their parents death. This is a fun action film with a lot of classic fighting scenes, funny dialogue and Jean-Claude Van Damme playing 2 different characters. Since i mentioned a harbour earlier this is one of the films i really relate to when it comes to harbour scenes. Definetely worth picking up on physical media if you want to have a fun 90´s nostalgic trip. South Korean films have proved to be really good over the years, and there are a handful of very talented director´s out there who have delivered high quality films such as one of my personal favourites known as the 2010 psychological thriller I Saw The Devil. I have been reading positive reviews about the action thriller Project Wold Hunting since earlier this year and i finally got a chance to see it on a physical copy. Is this one of the films you should see this summer, or is Project Wolf Hunting not as fun as you might have hoped for?

A group of very well known criminals are being transported on a cargo ship from The Philippines back to South Korea. Every criminal will be under watched by police officers on board and must never be left withot supervision: What they don´t know is that someone have already planned to let the prisoners go, and now they are left out in the sea with no help, and forced to try and survive against serial killers and rapists.

Hoe many of you remember the 1992 action film Uner Siege with Steven Seagal, Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones where a bunch of terrorists took over the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri? It was definetely the best film in Steven Seagal´s career and as a terrorist on a battleship it had some really good action scenes. So imagine a similar idea but instead we are on a cargo ship with chained criminals who escape and you pretty much get the same idea. There is one other twist in this story that actually adds something extra to enjoy. I think we might as well talk about one of the biggest highlights of Project Wolf Hunting and that is how violent this film is. There are some extremely brutal killing scenes in this film where they don´t hold back at all. People are killed in so many different ways that you can never be bored, and you get to have some fun as well if you enjoy some really gory kills. You can tell that they really did hard work to make these violent scenes work since a lot of the scenes are suprisingly effective. The acting in this film are quite powerful from most characters, but there is especially one character that really stands out in the whole film and that is the character known as Park Jong-doo ( played by actor Seo In-Guk ). If you love really sick serial killers, you are in for a treat. This guy does not care at all how many people he kill and is clearly a sick individual. An acting performance such as this fits perfect in a film like Project Wolf Hunting. The plot may not be anything unique or special but it is thanks to the great casting and the chemistry between the actors that really make this film work. You can have lots of violence but you need to match it well with the characters, otherwise it won´t work. Luckily that´s not a problem in this film. Director Hongsum Kim does not only give us one of the most brutal action films i have seen in several years, but he also give us the South Korean version of Under Siege. And he does it really well with very effective action scenes and great camera work. If you think action films are completely dead i can tell you that there is still hope for this genre. Project Wolf Hunting makes sure to show how an action film should look like and don´t care what is politically correct or not. I am very grateful for that, a must buy on DVD or Blu Ray.

Rating: DDDD