Writer-director Na Hong-jin's film "Hope" drops viewers into its chaotic world without explanation, following local police chief Ko Bum-seok as he investigates a mysterious death and a town under attack. The movie features two extended action sequences, one in the town and another in the woods, which showcase impressive set design and kinetic filmmaking. With 2.5 hours of runtime, "Hope" is structured around these sequences, leaving some plot details to be discovered by the audience.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
HOPE IS A MOVIE THAT’S VERY COMFORTABLE with tossing audiences into the deep end and letting them sink or swim on their own.
asserted
them → ’ → own
Writer-director Na Hong-jin never feels the need to stop and explain what’s going on; this is an admirable quality in a filmmaker, albeit one that leads to some real whiplash in this particular movie.
asserted
that → feel → movie
We start in what feels like the middle, with the local police chief Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) investigating the strange death of a cow.
asserted
chief → start → cow
A group of hunters led by Bum-seok’s cousin, Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) have stumbled onto the carcass; it’s been ripped to shreds.
asserted
it → lead → shreds
What could have done this?
uncertain
What → do → this
How could a tiger from Siberia have traversed the minefields between North and South Korea?
uncertain
tiger → traverse → Korea
No one’s really sure.
asserted
one → ’ → ?
But the hunters head off into the woods to figure out what’s happening, while Bum-seok heads back into the town of Hope Harbor to find out what’s happening there.
asserted
what → head → Harbor
And what’s happening there is that all hell has broken loose.
asserted
hell → happen → ?
Wreckage is strewn about the streets, holes punched clean through buildings.
asserted
holes → strew → buildings
Bodies lay all over, torn to pieces.
asserted
Bodies → lay → pieces
It’s a war zone not far from the DMZ (signs abound demanding that the citizens “protect the nation from infiltration” and to “report spies”), and when shots ring in the distance you can’t help but wonder if this is an invasion.
asserted
this → ’ → distance
It is, of course, but not of the sort those signs are designed to thwart.
asserted
signs → design → sort
Hope is about two and a half hours long and structured around two separate fifty-minute-or-so chase sequences.
asserted
Hope → structure → sequences
The first involves Bum-seok trying to figure out what has attacked his town and whether or not he, the armed locals, or his deputy, Im Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon), can stop this lone wrecking ball.
asserted
he → involve → ball
The second moves the action to the woods, where the hunters, a team of backup cops, and then Bum-seok and Im Sung-ae try to survive a whole team of the same sort of monsters that attacked the town.
asserted
that → move → town
These sequences are stitched together with an expository sequence that never overexplains why the monsters are on the rampage and also gives audiences a chance to catch their breath.
asserted
monsters → stitch → breath
I’m being a little oblique about the plot, because I want you to discover it for yourself.
asserted
you → want → yourself
But I want to be very clear about one important fact: Hope has some of the most kinetic, coherent, and exciting extended action sequences I’ve ever seen put on the big screen.
asserted
I → want → screen
The first stretch features long car chases with multiple forward 180s, wreckage flying through the air, and immaculate set design that gives the whole thing the feeling of a war zone.
asserted
that → feature → zone
It’s truly amazing work.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
And then Hope hits a gear you can’t even believe it was keeping in reserve once things move to the forest.
asserted
things → hit → forest
You have exploding trees, bodies flying through the air, and one of the greatest horse chases I’ve ever seen in a fantasy action movie of this sort, up there with the flight to Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring.
asserted
I → have → Ring
To linger on this for a moment: Na Hong-jin stages a portion of this horse chase as beautifully as I’ve ever seen done.
asserted
I → linger → chase
A lone man on horseback, riding against a wooded, hilly backdrop, the sun dipping down toward the horizon at the end of this long, horror-filled day.
asserted
sun → rid → day
I don’t know if he tracked this with a helicopter or a drone or what, but the shot is just gorgeous, a perfect representation of the desperate flight for safety as Sung-ki is being chased by one of the monsters.
asserted
ki → know → monsters
And then you see the thing chasing him and it looks like something out of a mid-franchise Resident Evil movie.
asserted
it → see → movie
This is the big problem with Hope, and it almost feels silly to complain about, given how much care and craft clearly went into the real physical world of the production: The computer-generated monsters are just . . . kind of janky-looking.
asserted
monsters → feel → production
You just have all of these immaculately designed set pieces, and the monsters in motion look like the Lickers from Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004).
asserted
monsters → have → Evil
It’s not the end of the world; indeed, it burnishes some of the film’s B-movie cred.
asserted
it → ’ → cred
This is a big, silly, monster movie, one in which an elderly resident of Hope explains how his stomach distress almost led to him being eaten by the monsters in question.
asserted
him → explain → question
Seriously: No movie has ever had a funnier sequence about a guy going into detail explaining his efforts to avoid having diarrhea; this is a Christopher-Walken-and-the-watch level of “unexpectedly funny.”
asserted
this → have → diarrhea
And this is the other saving grace about the goofiness of the creature design: It’s a very funny movie, one filled with great asides and monologues alike.
asserted
It → save → asides
Hope perfectly combines laughs and frights to keep the endocrine system racing.
asserted
system → combine → laughs
It’s almost enough to get people to overlook the fact that the movie doesn’t really have an ending.
asserted
movie → ’ → ending
Indeed, it does something you very rarely see in a film like this: There’s a complete point-of-view reversal at the end of the movie that not only promises a sequel, it upends everything we thought we’d seen so far.
asserted
we → do → everything
It’s a gutsy move from Na Hong-jin, one that I’m not entirely sure worked.
asserted
I → ’ → that
(I won’t spoil what happens, but it definitely sucked some of the energy out of the room as we were leaving; the whiplash I mentioned in the opening paragraph is going to send more than a few audience members to their chiropractor.)
asserted
I → spoil → chiropractor
But I think this movie is going to do well enough to get us the sequel that sort of soulful finale demands.
asserted
sort → think → finale
I’m excited to see if he can pay off the world he is trying to build here.
asserted
he → ’m → world
