Hope, the crowd-pleasing latest from The Wailing filmmaker Na Hong-jin, hits the ground running and doesn’t stop for the entirety of its 160-minute runtime. From beginning to end, Hope moves at a rapid clip, delivering a propulsive genre-bender that only rarely pauses its nonstop gory action to catch its breath. While that means you never feel its length, it becomes clear by the film’s end that this is only part one of a greater saga that’s just getting warmed up.
Hope begins with the ravaged corpse of a cow, discovered by police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and hunter/cousin Sung-ki (Zo In-sung), as they speculate what kind of animal could’ve caused its gaping wounds. They opt to divide and conquer their search for answers, sending Bum-seok back into his town of Hope Harbor. It’s there he finds a trail of destruction and eviscerated bodies, setting in motion a constant cat-and-mouse chase between an otherworldly threat and the local residents.
It can’t be emphasized enough just how fast Na Hong-jin’s latest moves. Bum-seok serves as the audience proxy; we’re discovering what’s happening as this bumbling but dedicated police chief does. He races through Hope Harbor’s streets, trying to catch the source of the mayhem, only to encounter residents mere moments before the threat brutally dispatches them with bloody bursts of violence. Bum-seok fumbles his way through his mission at nearly every turn, the first sign of the film’s overarching sense of humor, but luckily he has a competent underling in Sung-ae (Hoyeon).
Sung-ae quickly establishes herself as the most effective arms wielder of the film, arriving in the nick of time in a stunning show of take-charge confidence, though Sung-ki’s lucky streak might match her in terms of heroics. Both are at the forefront of Hope Harbor’s highly amusing, barely contained secret: the residents of this border town to North Korea have covertly amassed quite the impressive arsenal in a country that strictly prohibits private firearm ownership. That every single person that Bum-seok encounters not only knows how to wield them, but owns a stock that would make John Wick proud is its biggest running gag.
The focus on the town means that it takes a while for the threat to reveal itself beyond its carnage. That’s not a bad thing, considering that while the creature designs are unique and distinctive, their CGI rendering isn’t nearly as strong as Hope‘s kinetic action and stunt work. As Bum-seok, Sung-ki, and Sung-ae depart Hope Harbor for the nearby forest, Hope gradually layers in a new perspective that introduces Ma’veyyo (Michael Fassbender) and J’aur (Alicia Vikander), two intelligent beings whose tragic backstory is only teased in setup for continuation.
That’s ultimately where Hope loses all momentum. Na Hong-jin ends his genre-bender abruptly just as the story ramps up to an even bigger, earth-shattering development that’ll leave us in the lurch until an inevitable sequel. One that feels far more somber than the zippy, often humorous but bloody romp that precedes it. In the process, Hope leaves all of its meaty themes, like xenophobia, underexplored.
Hope operates on spectacle, crowd-pleasing action, and humor. It mostly succeeds, ensuring that by the film’s end, we’re entertained and rooting for all to simply survive. That even includes the aliens, which is no small ask considering the level of pain inflicted upon both sides of this siege. But it often stretches that action too far, reserving its most interesting plot developments for later.
Hope releases in theaters on September 9.
