‘Hunt’ Cannes Review: ‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-Jae’s Directorial Debut Is Taut Action Espionage Drama

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorNetflix’s “Squid Game” featured sets such as the M.C. Escher- like staircase and a tug-of-war area, as characters on a remote island compete in deadly versions of childhood games.Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun built killer sets on a large scale for the 456 contestants as they battle it out to be the last man standing, all for a cash prize.Its most iconic set is right at the beginning, as the contestants play Red Light, Green Light.“I wanted to fill the set for the first game with fantasy and fairy- tale-like images,” Chae says.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticOne of the most enjoyable South Korean action movies in recent years, 2017’s “The Outlaws” was a deft mix of brutal gang-warfare thrills and Keystone Cops comedics. It provided an ideal vehicle for Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee (“Train to Busan” and “Eternals”) as the police investigator whose hit-first-ask-permission-later methods regularly got the job done while infuriating his superiors.That burly protagonist and his sidekicks are back in “The Roundup,” which despite a different directorial (newbie Lee Sang-yong replacing the prior edition’s Kang Yoon-seong) and writing crew, maintains the original’s strengths.

Jay Park, Lee Hi and Jessi are among the South Korean musicians to be confirmed for MIK Festival 2022, which will take place in London later this year.MIK Festival 2022 recently announced its line-up for the second day of the festival, which it has dubbed its “hip-hop day” on July 31. Set to take place at Southwark Park, the festival’s second date will feature Korean-American singer-rappers Jay Park and Jessi, along with singer-songwriters Lee Hi and GRAY.Also new to the line-up are hip-hop trio Epik High, and rappers pH-1, Loco and Dok2.

Clayton Davis We shouldn’t only celebrate AAPI representation in May, as the artistic contributions of our global talents have produced some of the best television and film productions in the last decade. However, as we come to the close of the annual celebration, it’s worth noting the multiple acting contenders that are in the running for Primetime Emmy nominations.Netflix’s “Squid Game” rocked the streaming world, becoming the most-watched series in the platform’s history.

Broker and Decision to Leave have made history at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time two Korean works have won at the same ceremony.The upcoming Korean films Broker and Decision To Leave have both taken home one award each at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time two Korean films have won an award at the festival in the same year.South Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who rose to international prominence in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in 2019, took home the Best Actor award for his role in Broker, which was directed by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. This makes Song the second Korean, after Jeon Do-yeon for 2007’s Secret Sunshine to win the award, and the first Korean male actor to do so.During his acceptance speech, the 55-year-old actor thanked director Hirokazu Kore-eda, along with his Broker co-stars Gang Dong-won, IU, Lee Joo-young and Bae Doo-na.

Broker, starring singer-actress IU, was given a 12-minute standing ovation at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.Broker, the first-ever Korean-language film by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, recently premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 27. Once the screening had concluded, the fil received a 12-minute-long standing ovation from those in-attendance, according to a report from Korean news outlet Edaily.The publication also claimed that the standing ovation began with Cannes Film Festival’s executive director, Thierry Frémaux.

After being told that his story was too grotesque and unrealistic, Hwang Dong-hyuk set aside his script for Squid Game for 10 years. When Netflix came looking for overseas content, Hwang took his shot and gave it a drama that quickly became the most-watched series in the streaming service’s history.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThose “specific people” showed up at the Variety offices in costume as the mysterious guards (aka “pink soldiers”) from “Squid Game,” complete with iconic circle/triangle/square masks. They came bearing an invitation to Netflix’s FYSee Emmy events space at Raleigh Studios, along with a box of donuts.The brutal South Korean drama about class, power, wealth and kiddie games clearly remains an awards priority for the streamer — particularly after this year’s SAG Awards garnered wins including male actor (Lee Jung-Jae) and female actor (Jung Ho-yeon).

Seungri, who was once part of the boyband Big Bang, will serve the entirety of his 18-month jail sentence after a South Korean court upheld the sentence.Today (May 26), the South Korean Supreme Court rejected the 32-year-old singer’s appeal for a lighter sentence, over nine separate charges he received over his involvement in the Burning Sun scandal, according to SBS Star.The singer was originally sentenced to three years behind bars in August 2021, after a lower court found him guilty of all nine charges, which ranged from misappropriating funds to procuring prostitution for investors. At the time, he had also been ordered to pay ₩1.15billion (roughly £700,000) in restitution.However, Seungri’s sentence was halved earlier this year in January when the High Military Court of the Ministry Of Defense in Seoul held the final appeal trial.

When the Cannes Film Festival lineup was announced on April 14, Twitter positively exploded with excitement over the news that Lee Ji-eun would make her Riviera debut with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker in Competition. The Korean actress, singer and songwriter—popularly known as IU—has a legion of fans, including 26 million followers on Instagram, and has been described as a national treasure at home. She may now be well poised for crossover success with her first commercial film.

While Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden dealt with a lot of sex and kink in its story of a handmaiden who gets into the good graces of her Japanese heiress, only to defraud her, the Korean filmmaker in his latest Decision to Leave, dotes on a detective Hae-Joon (Park Hae-il) who is head over heels with a very possible murder suspect, Seo-rae (Tang Wei).

Warning: This story contains spoilers for season 1 of Squid Game.

An adoptee explores her Korean roots in Return To Seoul, Davy Chou’s engaging drama premiering at Cannes in Un Certain Regard. Newcomer Park Ji-Min plays the magnificently complex Freddie, who was raised in France and has impetuously decided to spend a couple of weeks in the country of her birth.

CANNES, France -- Lee Jung-jae, the award-winning star of Netflix's “Squid Game,” spent years developing the 1980s-set Korean spy thriller “Hunt” before electing to direct himself. He did it a little reluctantly, without big plans to continue filmmaking. But Lee did have a vision for what it could be — and where it could premiere.“Before deciding to direct, I thought I just wanted to make a very fun film,” Lee says.

pic.twitter.com/3F4uIUX2dFGray’s tone at the press conference turned a bit more serious as he discussed the state of cinema and Hollywood and its reliance on turning everything into a franchise. “The whole point should be to inspire creativity. Instead, what we say is, ‘That’s good franchise.’ We used to think of franchises as McDonald’s and Burger King.

EXCLUSIVE: Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is in early stage development on a satire about the creation of Netflix’s Squid Game, which became a global hit overnight, provisionally titled The Best Show on the Planet. 

First, there was Parasite, shaking up the global film sector and snatching Oscar glory. Then, there was Squid Game.

While Netflix is canceling a bunch of projects to curb overspending, there are some originals that keep chugging along thanks to their massive popularity. One of those shows is “Squid Game” which became the most talked-about genre series of 2021 and helped cement that foreign-made originals can compete with western genre stories like “Stranger Things.” The massive hit that hails from South Korea is indeed getting a second season but don’t expect them to rush it.

“Squid Game” director Hwang Dong-hyuk says there might have been a different ending to season 1 had the characters just learned to work together.