Hope

“Hope” can be summarized in the desperate, macaronic exclamation of its police chief, Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), while sprinting away from an alien predator: “Holy shibal!” For those who have not watched any K-dramas, “shibal” is, as expected, the Korean word for “f*ck.” The police chief uses the English “holy,” though, combining the two languages into a single expression. 

With the risk of sounding reductive, director Na Hong-jin’s latest film, in some ways, brings a Hollywood genre sensibility to Korean cinema—and “holy shibal!” encapsulates this perfectly. Its $46 million budget takes home the prize as the most expensive production in the country’s history, and Hollywood married couple Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender portray two of the monsters. 

On the other hand, Na’s film also just requires obscenities to fully express one’s authentic reaction. “Hope” is as deranged as the hell of “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and as caffeinated as George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” while never for a single moment duping the viewer into thinking they are watching a “normal” movie. Na’s cinema takes a turn for the relentless: long wide-lens shots follow the endless action closely, but what comes next is never predictable, never genre-constrained. “Hope” is a beautifully preposterous foray into science fiction.

A police chief is called to investigate a string of dead animals and property destruction in a fictional town right along the DMZ before realizing only something otherworldly could do the kind of damage he is seeing. Like the best creature features, “Hope” hides its towering grey humanoid extraterrestrial monsters for quite some time (even if the marketing doesn’t do the same) and lets their aftermath build the suspense. By the time we see them in motion, their indomitable strength and misanthropic ferocity have already been established.  

“Hope” appears destined to turn Hwang, Zo In-sung, and Hoyeon into international action stars. Hwang plays his cop the most straight-laced of the group: confident, a smidge scared (allowing him to be brave), and earnest in his effort to keep others safe. He is always running, and his run communicates a lot about his character. He springs not with the resolution or perfect form of a Tom Cruise character, but with a slinking form and embodied terror of what lurks around the corner. 

Continue reading at The Rapidian.