February 6, 2025
SEOUL – We are now living in a polarized society sharply divided into two antagonizing groups, where there is no middle ground. In such a society, the two extreme factions easily become hostile monsters trying to eliminate each other. The inevitable outcome is the total annihilation of society.
Recently, I watched a 2020 American film, “The Hunt.” At first, I thought that the movie was just another man-hunting thriller, evoking Richard Connell’s classic story, “The Most Dangerous Game.” Soon, however, it turned out to be a pungent parody of the current polarization between the Left and the Right, or liberalism and conservatism in contemporary global society these days.
In “The Hunt,” a group of white-collar people kidnap blue-collar workers to hunt and kill them for sport. These days, some people say that America is divided by left-wing elites and right-wing working-class people. Yet, “The Hunt” defies such oversimplified categorization.
Indeed, the kidnappers in the movie are not “left-wing elites,” per se: they are more like rich snobs. The leader, Athena, owns a private jet, enjoys caviar and purchases three bottles of champagne costing $25,000 each. Moreover, they despise the working class, calling them “deplorables,” which reminds us of Hillary Clinton’s infamously ill-chosen remarks about Trump supporters during her presidential election campaign.
At the beginning of the movie, Athena’s friends exchange jokes through group texts, such as, “At least the hunt is coming up. Nothing is better than going out to the Mansion and slaughtering a dozen deplorables.” The problem is that their jokes leak on the internet and fuel fury over the conspiracy theory called “Manorgate.”
As their group chat becomes a scandal, Athena’s group members are fired and their careers are ruined. Furious, they decide to make “Manorgate” real for those who are responsible for spreading the conspiracy theory. Thus, Athena’s group members kidnap 12 working-class people, and then begin hunting and killing them for vengeance.
The hunted try to escape but are picked off one by one by the hunters. However, one of the hunted named Crystal begins to fight back, killing all the Athena’s group members and finally Athena herself. As a war veteran, Crystal turns the hunt into “the most dangerous game” for the hunters.
“The Hunt” is a controversial movie, dealing with sensitive political issues. However, it is worth watching because it enlightens us with some compelling issues for our times: the polarity and antagonism of our society between the Left and the Right, or the rich and the poor.
The movie also teaches us not to assume things, because making wrong assumptions will lead us to disastrous misunderstandings and mistakes. For instance, Athena’s group chat about hunting and slaughtering “a dozen deplorables” was just a prank initially, but it becomes real after people assume that they are really hunting and killing working-class people for fun.
The main characters of the movie, too, keep making mistakes due to their incorrect assumptions. For example, the Athena group members kidnap the wrong Crystal, capturing someone else with the same name from the same city. They just assume that it is the same Crystal who posted offensive remarks about them on social media. However, their assumption costs their lives, because the woman they do kidnap kills all the Athena group members.
Moreover, Crystal, too, makes a mistake by assuming that her companion, Don, is one of Athena’s group members in disguise and kills him. Indeed, the movie admonishes the viewers that both sides can make fatal mistakes, if they wrongfully assume and become suspicious of one another.
The movie also illustrates that if two opposite adversaries hate each other blindly, they will both end up being extremists. At the end of the movie, Crystal and Athena fight ferociously and both are severely wounded. This scene illustrates that if the Left and the Right fight to death, both sides will end up being brutally wounded.
After killing Athena, Crystal wears Athena’s dress, takes Athena’s bag, boards Athena’s jet and leaves, as if she were Athena herself. This final scene symbolizes that she and Athena may be identical in essence.
In the movie, Crystal tells her own version of the famous children’s story, “The Hare and the Tortoise.” In her story, the Jackrabbit kills the Box Turtle after losing the race. When Crystal kills Athena, she sees a Jackrabbit near the body of Athena. The Jackrabbit could be a symbol of Crystal’s victory, but that victory is problematic because it is, in fact, vengeance disguised as justice.
“The Hunt” is a stern reprimand for our polarized society sharply divided by the Left and the Right, progressives and conservatives, or the privileged and the underprivileged, who are antagonizing each other. The movie warns that if we continue to fight, we all will suffer fatal wounds, and our crippled society will face total annihilation eventually. We cannot let that happen.
Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.