In an introduction to his latest film screening in IMAX, Korean director Na Hong-jin tells the audience that the format is the best way to experience the scale and spectacle of the movie. But even with the pre-warning of the film’s epic nature, nothing can quite prepare you for the utter insanity that is Hope—an action-packed, gory, riotously funny, larger-than-life blockbuster.
This is both an expertly crafted monster movie with Spielbergian sensibilities (à la Jaws) and a cartoonish parody of the genre with characters that fit classic Looney Tunes stereotypes and provoke thunderous roars of laughter in a crowded cinema. You’re never quite sure what Hope truly wants to be, but it pulls you along for the ride without dropping the ball.
Set in a small Korean Harbour town (from which the film gets its name), we are immediately introduced to evidence of devastation. A cow has been completely ravaged by claws far larger than a bear. Sung Ki (Zo In-Sung), out hunting with his group of friends, calls his cousin, local police chief Beom Seok (Hwang Jun-Min), to check out the scene. With the hunters heading into the woods, and Beom Seok heading back to the town, the presence of a dark, deadly creature looms ever closer. Utilising classic tools for suspense, it is 20 mins into the film that we first hear the monster’s roars, and another half an hour until we get a glimpse of the thing for ourselves. But as soon as we enter the town, we are aware of the incoming danger; the whole place has been torn apart. By the time that Beom Seok’s deputy Sung-Ae—Squid Games’ Hoyeon—arrives at the scene, machine guns blazing, our heroes are well and truly in the middle of it.
For a film with a run-time of two hours and 40 minutes, it’s inevitable that the tightrope of tension will not always be walked delicately. The film has large chunks in which the sheer ineptitude of the police chief shifts the narrative into all-out comedy. The tonal shifts between ridiculous hijinks and the slow simmering approach of the hunters in the woods are jarring. And yet, within both spheres of work, Hope is utterly captivating. The audience laughs, they gasp, they beg for the protagonists to somehow make it out alive. As is often the case, once we can see the creatures, we are inevitably less scared of them, particularly in the case of some very ’00s video game-style character design and CGI. However, with as striking a presence as the three leads hold, we remain gripped in their terror, from their perfectly pitched, and completely earnest, performances—while we only see glimpses beneath the surface of these characters, they tell us all we need to know in the moment.
Hope is unafraid of going all out, resulting in it being one of South Korea’s most expensive films, whether that is in the masterful production design of the destroyed Hope Harbour, or the ambition of its long, violent action sequences. The blocking and cinematography stand out, whether it is us viewing our characters through the holes of the wreckage, or scenes in the woods often shot looking up at our hunters, as if we ourselves were the prey. The continuation of the film’s exploration of genres is seen in a horse-back chase between Sung Ki and the monster, which echoes classic Western moviemaking.
Where the film starts to fall apart, however, is in the lore of the narrative itself. The monsters, who turn out to be aliens voiced by Hollywood stars Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell, are given a slew of backstory in the final act of the film, after the tension has finally died down. There are moments of empathy for them laced throughout the latter half of Hope, but these are never truly given breathing room. It feels as if the film shifts to a completely different story in its final ten minutes, and if a sequel for it never arrives, its ending can be classed as nothing other than bizarre (except for a mid-credit scene that had the whole audience cheering).
That being said, for every scene that makes you scratch your head, there are another three that have you beaming from ear to ear. Don’t try to make sense of Hope. It’s a film to be experienced in all its messy, brazen, cinematic, awe-inducing glory.
Hope is in UK + Irish cinemas from 25 September.
