Two police officers (Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon) in a small town near the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea find themselves under attack from a mysterious creature unlike anything they’ve seen before.
Given that Hope has made headlines as South Korea’s most expensive movie of all time, you might expect that director Na Hong-jin’s latest would play it safe and deliver a more traditional blockbuster. Yet in its opening moments, as a police chief follows a path of destruction left by a mysterious creature across his small DMZ town, this Spielbergian monster-mystery soon reveals itself to be a far bigger (and more insane) swing than the likes of Super 8 or Cloverfield, where monsters simply run wild. This is a very different beast — and by far the most gonzo film of the year.
Hope is a hard film to put in a box. It’s an insane two-and-a-half-hour monster movie with a brutal ‘how-the-hell-did-they-film-that?’ foot-to-horse-to-car extended chase, a serious lengthy monologue about diarrhoea (which is a crucial plot point), and, to top it all off, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander rock up at one point and make jaw-to-the-floor appearances. These bizarre tonal switches just shouldn’t work, yet its embrace of mayhem on screen marks it as one of the year’s most entertaining cinema experiences.
Another insane vision from one of Korea’s most impressive filmmakers.
Not since Mad Max: Fury Road has a film slammed its foot down on the accelerator so hard. Even when holding its cards to its chest and not revealing the creature itself, the film goes full steam ahead, keeping us hot on its path of destruction. A tense first hour makes way for some of the silliest (and most impressive) action of the year as the cat-and-mouse game gets flipped on its head. Yet for all the film’s entertainment value, the one caveat is that you will have to get past its less-than-perfect CGI.
Amid the madness, though, there is also depth. The town of Hope Harbour, in proximity to North Korea and riddled with signs about not trusting strangers, immediately goes on the attack when something otherworldly breaches its walls. Those looking for something beyond explosions will find plenty to love here as the film unpicks a small community deeply set in its ways.
With buildings being destroyed and guns firing every few seconds, Hope isn’t a film concerned with going too deep on its characters. It’s to the film’s benefit, then, that its two leads, Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon, are such a presence on screen. Hwang’s initial gruff exterior soon makes way to reveal an officer floundering and in way over his head. But it is Hoyeon, who enters the film firing off a grenade-launcher, who cements herself as an action star here, balancing the film’s more tender moments while being equally convincing firing off thousands of rifle rounds.
A lore-heavy final ten minutes makes clear this is only Part 1, and may leave some viewers questioning what on earth they just saw — the film’s vigour somewhat diluted after nearly three hours of adrenaline with no a final pay-off. But those won over by another insane vision from one of Korea’s most impressive filmmakers will be left kicking and screaming for more.
Do yourself a favour and surrender to this entertaining, unwieldy and goofy spectacle. Much like its monster, it runs amok. Bring on Part 2!
