Badland Hunters

Survivors of the apocalypse search for food, water and apparently immortality in Heo Myung-haeng’s loopy sequel.

“Useless ones deserve to die.”

I had no idea that Concrete Utopia, last year’s exciting dystopian thriller about the survivors of a huge world-destroying earthquake, had a sequel. I certainly didn’t think that one would be released so soon after the initial film, seemingly with very little fanfare. But mostly, I had absolutely no idea that it would be this bananas.

Set three years after the events of Concrete Utopia, it seems that much of humanity has adjusted  – more or less – to their new lives amidst the rubble of civilisation. Nam San (Ma Dong-seok) and Ji-Wan (Lee Jun-young) are two hunters who provide much-needed meat to a starving Seoul. Specifically they help out a small village made up of broken houses and buses, where artist Su-Na (Roh Jeong-eui) and her grandmother (Sung Byoung-sook) live. A group from the famous Hwang Gung Apartments arrives, looking for young people to bring to their building where fresh water and food are plentiful – as they believe children should be looked after, considering they are the future of this wasteland.

After they take Su-na and her friend, Nam San and Ji-wan decide to follow this group. Along the way they are attacked by two people from the apartment, who are near-impossible to kill, and are saved by ex-military Eun-hoo (Ahn Ji-hye), who says that the Hwang Gung Apartments have been taken over by a mad scientist called Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-jun), who is experimenting on children in his bid to create some sort of immortality elixir.

If Concrete Utopia took typical disaster tropes and used them to tell a compelling story about how society is created and breaks down, then Badland Hunters is kind of the opposite. It kind of has nothing to say, and is perfectly willing to use the setting to just have all kinds of fun. This is a story that never really knows when to pack it in, pull in the reins or even sit and reflect for a minute. It’s a film that starts with a man being attacked by a crocodile in a car, and ends with a man wheeling a suitcase with the head and torso of his daughter. In the middle we fight a sergeant who’s mostly lizard. Badland Hunters is bonkers in the most entertaining way.

While Ma tends to carry movies like this by himself, Badlands Hunters lets him lighten the load by pairing him up with a sidekick who isn’t half-bad at fighting, and can carry his side of the story without help. Su-na and Eun-ho are also developed enough that seeing them all on-screen is never a drag. But the true highlight performance comes from Lee Hee-jun, whose turn as Gi-su is an immense amount of fun. He plays the mad scientist role to absolute perfection, slowly unravelling as his plan begins to fall apart, his god complex preventing him from seeing how wrong he is.

On top of that the action is fully on-point, with some top-tier choreography and a visual style that doesn’t shy away from gore without going over the top. It makes for some truly gruesome moments, and more than a few instances where I audibly gasped. There’s a lot of classic ma Dong-seok-isms in here, from the way he punches like a truck to how seemingly nothing (except maybe stairs) can slow him down.

I don’t remotely buy it as a sequel to Concrete Utopia, however. With the exception of the sole standing apartment building, there’s nothing in this that connects to the plot or elements of the first one. It’s not unlike how Mad Max went from a pretty straightforward revenge thriller to this bombastic, surreal world with practically no through-line. With that said, I’d like to see more stories in this universe. Perhaps a time jump every movie, showing us how the apartment is being used 20 or even 100 years from now. It seems to be the only way the franchise can continue. As much as I like Ma, I wouldn’t want the franchise to suddenly focus on him.

Verdict: Badland Hunters isn’t half bad, if taken at face value. It is content being what it is, but if you’re looking for a pro/per sequel to Concrete Utopia, this probably won’t scratch that itch.

Overall entertainment: 8/10
Actual artistic merit: 5/10
Violence: 8/10
Sex: 0/10
Ma Dong-seok: Just sort of playing himself at this point, isn’t he
Timely rain: Of course
Kwon: Just eats entire rats

Badland Hunters (2024)
Also known as: 황야 (Wilderness)
Korean

Director: Heo Myeong-haeng
Writer

CAST

Ma Dong-seok – Nam-san
Lee Jun-young – Ji-wan
Roh Jeong-eui – Su-na
Ahn Ji-hye – Eun-ho
Lee Hee-jun – Yang Gi-su
Park Ji-hoon – Sergeant Kwon
Jang Young-nam – Teacher
Park Hyo-joo – Tiger