Hope (2026)

Hope/Hopeu is a crazy madcap rollercoaster made in Korea by master filmmaker Na Hong-jin (author of The Chaser,-2008 The Yellow Sea-2010 and The Wailing-2016). Saw all of them in Cannes at the fest. Hope premiered this year in the Cannes Film Festival, in the official competition. The vfx were not completed so the film scored a mixed reception. It's also the most expensive Korean film to-date.

But Hopeu (the name of the finctional South Korean fishing village) is: 

not a monster film 

not a sci-fi film

not a thriller

not a comedy

not a horror

but all in ONE.

Oh, what a ride !!!! Predator and Korean misfits, a mixed of genres and an cinematic energy only seen in the Mad Max films. Plus some Prometheus trops (don't listen to the Avatar people;)

Well, the duration is self-indulgent, 160 mins.

But the film is NON-STOP KINETIC, with spellbinding images and exceptional cinematography.

Incredibly the Mountain /wood scenes were shot in Retezat mountains in Romania !!! 

The VFX are not 100 % there, due to budget limitations, but the vision is hugely ambitious. 

The action happens around 1980 in the demilitarised zone of South Korea, close to the border with the North. Hwang Jung-min is the chief of police and he's one of the 3-4-5 ? leads. He is a major action hero star in Korea and he is seconded by Hoyeon, the girl from Squid Game seriers and by an even cooler hunter with a cap, Zo In-sung. They are all cool and hyperkinetic and fast and scared or scared and fast, and they all banter. Fast and scared. Or the reverse. Korean. sense of humour might not make a lot of sense sometimes for the rest of the world. 

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are in the film too but I won't say more. 

I'd say only the film is superhuman in emotions, and very absurd, bleak and cruel in parts. Also visceral to the extremes. 

Great score by American composer Michael Abels (Us, Nope). 

See it in a cinema, bigger the screen the better and the speakers UP full blast !!!

(it runs very limited in Romanian cinemas now, brought by Vertical Entertainment !!!)

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !!!

cool interview with Na Hong-Jin in THR here. 

There's spoliers tho. I haven't specifically mentioned th ending but Good luck Na Hong-Jin !!!