High ‘Hope’
Na Hong-jin is 4/4 after this.
Hope
Director: Na Hong-jin • Writer: Na Hong-jin
Starring: Hwang Jung-min, Jung Ho-yeon, Zo In-sung, Lee Sang-hee, Eum Moon-suk, Im Hyun-sik
South Korea • 2hrs 37mins
Opens Hong Kong September 10 • IIB
Grade: A
Na Hong-jin’s Hope | 호프 begins with Hope Harbor police chief Ko Bum-seok (the hardest working man in Korean showbiz, Hwang Jung-min) driving his boxy 1970s squad car down a gravelly country road to talk to some hunters about the oddly mutilated cow in the middle of self same road. There’s some bullshitting with each other, they tell him it’s a Siberian tiger down from the north, with Bum-seok trying to exert his authority in what appears to be a North Korea border town, near the DMZ. Among the hunters is Sung-ki (Zo In-sung, Escape from Mogadishu), Bum-seok’s cousin, and a few townies with not much to do but shoot stuff. It’s disarmingly calm and prosaic considering once Bum-seok heads back into town, he finds all hell has broken loose, and some…thing is wreaking havoc. But what truly ensues, for us, is the knock-down, drag-out, most boggling, white-knuckle opening 45-odd minutes of any movie this year, possibly the last five. Ignore the dickheads from Cannes who reviewed an unfinished film and whined about The Scorpion King-level CGI. When a director can orchestrate this much ass-kicking mayhem, pepper it with some legit hilarious dark comedy (does this film pivot on fussy bowels?) and so perfectly set up a (welcome) sequel on the cost of 1/5th of an average Disney or MCU film they’ve earned the right to some flaws. And sketchy CGI or not, Na is firing on all cylinders.
It was pretty obvious years ago that Na was going to be the jolt genre filmmaking needed. The Chaser put a fresh spin on the rote serial killer thriller and The Wailing was an ungodly amalgam of supernatural horror tropes that Na knew exactly how to stitch into a gorgeous tapestry. Hope is equally epic but a new selection from the genre buffet: the sci-fi creature feature. And though he’s cooking, Na has an absolute banger of a crew to make this shit work: his DOP is the Korean Roger Deakins, Hong Kyung-pyo – who made Snowpiercer and Parasite and Burning look slick and evocative and graceful; Na’s regular production designer Lee Hwo-kyoung worked on Netflix series Kingdom; he gets masterful editing by The Host’s (among others) Kim Sun-min; and he caps it off with a pounding, anxiety-stoking score by Michael Abels, Jordan Peele’s composer on Get Out and Nope; fans will hear (and feel) the familiar thrum from the latter. This is a murderer’s row of below the line artists who know what the fuck they’re doing when it comes to creature features, and movies in general.
A truly reluctant hero
When Bum-seok gets back to Hope Harbor, it’s eerily still yet ear-shatteringly loud. Whatever’s on a rampage is always a few steps ahead of Bum-seok and the various impromptu militias that have sprung up to track it down. It’s also eerie because of the city time forgot vibes, almost western-y, brought into relief by enigmatic signage about watching out for infiltrators, zero mobile phones, and perfect costuming for Bum-seok, who clacks around in his ’70s man heels and CHiPs-era leather jacket. At one point he picks up his deputy, the young, eager, freaked-out and trigger-happy Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon, who broke out as the North Korean player in the first Squid Game). They work the mystery from the town (you’ve never seen an autopsy like this) while Sung-ki and his posse poke around in the surrounding forest. Na weaves it all together eventually, basking in genre convention while gleefully usurping it.
What makes act one so stellar is how tactile everything is. Hong’s images have texture and weight; when a random wannabe hero gets their ass handed to them, we feel it. Lee’s devastated city dances a fine line between war-torn and worn down – it’s the DMZ after all – and suddenly, shockingly obliterated, blurring the line between the two. Making it all feel real is Hwang, a master of the comic surprised reaction and working-class relatability, who pitches Bum-seok as the perfect pretender. He’s in charge here, except he’s kind of inept. He wants to be brave but he’s terrified. It’s hard to find nuance in this archetype, but he does, and where he goes the cast follows, effortlessly carving out bits of character and never spiralling into dumb. Somehow, Na keeps the action moving (oh that 45-minute kick-off is only the first set piece) without chaining himself to stupid decisions to do so.
And in a sci-fi thriller like Hope stupid decisions are par for the course. Na proves they don’t have to be. The less you know going in the better; it’s the best way to let the mammoth story just wash over you. And yes, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender are in this, the package deal that idiot “journalist” famously asked about at the Cannes presser (after dismissing Hwang, Zo and Jung as “Never heard of you.”). Hold your horses. The story is mammoth – yet oddly simple – and the nearly perfect pacing makes the run time fly by, but it doesn’t let us forget there are wackadoodle moments in movies like this. Anyone who watches Cinemasins will hear “He survives this” in their head on multiple occasions, Sung-ae pulls a few too many screeching u-turns, and an endless highway chase rivals The Grandmaster or Fast & Furious 6 for “How long that road/platform/runway?” musings. None are enough of a head-scratcher to negate all that came before. Hope sits alongside The Odyssey this year for pure filmmaking wonderment; they’re the kind of movies you have to see in a theatre where the Dolby surround is loud. If Godzilla Minus Zero is a fraction as awesome as its predecessor, that and Hope are single-handedly (double-handedly?) setting 2026 up to be one of the GOAT monster movie years. Fingers crossed.