It's been a while since the earthquake that shook South Korea to its core. But the country has not recovered from the horror. The dynamic high-tech nation has become a wasteland. Law and order are concepts of the past; now the law of the strongest prevails. Water has become a rarity that is fought over by many. Amidst this gloomy outlook, the hunter Nam-San (Dong-Seok Ma) makes his rounds together with Ji-wan (Jun-young Lee), always looking for food to provide for the people of their small community. He soon has one more thing to worry about. So he has to free the young Suna (Jeong-eui Roh), who has fallen into the hands of the mad scientist Gi-su Yang (Hee-joon Lee), who is currently working on dubious experiments... Read Also: Race for Glory. Audi vs Lancia Ending Explained
The next end-time catastrophe
The world ends so often in films that you sometimes wonder why you should even get up in the morning. After all, we are doomed to things getting really bad anyway. Although there is at least a bit of variety in the type of demise. For example, Apocalypse – The Last Hope was recently released, in which a virus pandemic has brought humanity to its knees. The overexploitation of the earth is also always very popular, leaving it drained at some point and driving people into hardship. But sometimes it is natural accidents that trigger everything. This is what happened with the Netflix film Badland Hunters, where a devastating earthquake plunged South Korea into misery.
This was previously discussed in Concrete Utopia, an adaptation of the webtoon Pleasant Bullying by Sungnyung Kim. The fact that there is already a kind of sequel is strange in several ways. On the one hand, the first part is only a few months old, which means that both films were shot at the same time. On the other hand, the predecessor in question is not available on Netflix. In fact, it hasn't been published by us at all yet. The audience does not have to worry about any problems with understanding. So all you really need to know in Badland Hunters is that the country was destroyed by an earthquake and apartment complexes have become the last refuge. And this quickly becomes clear even without any prior knowledge.
End-time clichés and quick action
In addition, the story is so thin that one is hardly tempted to think about it in more detail. Most of this is just standard fare from the end-time cliché box that you've already seen in one way or another. Although the scenario surrounding the apartment blocks is quite nice, it is hardly used. The only thing that really stands out a bit is the mad scientist character. Of course, characters like this have existed before. But here it's so exaggerated that you can't really say whether it might be a comedy after all. Especially since Badland Hunters also incorporates humor in other places. But they weren't really consistent with this. You just built it in somehow, it will fit somehow.
The result is quite entertaining. The action scenes in particular help ensure that you get your money's worth here. You can see in his film that Myung-haeng Heo, who is making his directorial debut, previously worked as an action coordinator or stunt coordinator. There are some good scenes there. Dong-seok Ma, who had just fought his way through hordes of opponents in The Roundup: No Way Out, is a safe bet in this regard anyway. It's always kind of fun to watch him. Badland Hunters is not a real enrichment, neither for the actor's filmography nor for the Netflix review. But you can pass the time quite well with this.
-- Edited by flygc on Thursday 7th of March 2024 03:21:09 PM