‘Hope’: Na Hong-jin’s Monster Epic Blends Gore, Satire, and Heart

South Korean director Na Hong-jin has built a career on relentless chases, from the desperate hunt in his debut The Chaser to the supernatural outbreak in The Wailing. His latest, Hope, is his most ambitious and unhinged work yet — a 156-minute, big-budget spectacle that refuses to sit still.

The film is set in Hope Harbor, a town on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone. When a series of mysterious animal attacks rattles the community, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) is called in. Hunters suspect a tiger that crossed the border, but Bum-seok soon realizes the threat is far larger and stranger. For nearly an hour, he chases through rubble, his dialogue reduced to breathless expletives, before the creature is finally revealed: a towering, sinewy alien, rendered in CGI that is more schlocky than sleek.

Na’s film is not a smooth ride. The visual effects are uneven, and the runtime sags in places. But what Hope lacks in polish, it makes up for in audacity. The movie barrels through genres — monster movie, sci-fi, dark comedy, even a hint of police procedural — with the energy of a demolition derby. One standout sequence involves a medical examination of the alien’s corpse performed with a chainsaw. Another features a villager’s hilariously undignified eyewitness account, delivered while he struggles to contain his bowels.

Midway, the film shifts focus. Bum-seok is joined by officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon, making a winning big-screen debut after Squid Game), and together they begin investigating the origin of the creatures. Meanwhile, a separate storyline follows hunter Sung-ki (Zo In-Sung) and his team into the woods, where they encounter more of the extraterrestrial visitors. Played in motion capture by Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell, these aliens are initially indistinguishable — but as the film progresses, Na begins to humanize them. A slow-motion close-up of the creature’s pained eyes hints at something deeper, and by the end, the aliens’ own sounds are subtitled, inviting empathy across species.

This is Na’s signature move: even amid cosmic chaos, he insists on a human — and sometimes alien — scale. The authorities are mostly bumbling, but Bum-seok and Sung-ae are at least earnest. The film’s production design, by Lee Hwok-young, revels in destruction, yet the finale opens up into a breathtaking, wide-open chase that is both exhilarating and absurd.

Hope is said to be the most expensive Korean film ever made, and Na spent two years in post-production before premiering a slightly different cut at Cannes. The version now in theaters ends on a note that clearly leaves room for a sequel. Whether that follow-up materializes remains to be seen, but the final sequence makes a strong case for it.

Hope is in Korean with English subtitles and runs 156 minutes. It is rated R for strong bloody violent content and language.