Is Hope a run-and-gun action cheese fest, or is it going for something a little deeper, a little more cerebral? For the most part, yes—it’s both.
Hope is an oddly titled South Korean horror-action sci-fi film that flips genres several times throughout its runtime. Generally, for the most part, it absolutely works. It’s written and directed by Na Hong-jin. I’d say pronunciation check, but not for this one—not today. I already know how that would go.
We follow a cop who gets a call: “Hey, apparently something really big killed this cow.” I don’t know—maybe a tiger or a bear. Oh my. We’re missing the lion, but still—oh my. He soon discovers that whatever did it is neither of those things. It’s something—a something that’s tearing this small town apart. It’s one of those small towns, kind of like a Stephen King town, where everyone knows everyone. At least that’s the sense you get when he knows who’s dying.
This creates a double-edged sword. On one hand, I really love that this movie just gets to it. On the other hand, I could have gone for a little more build-up so I’d know who these people are who are dying. Regardless, I was amazed that for the first act or so, you don’t see whatever this is. This dude is constantly in the wake of destruction left by whatever’s tearing this town apart. Whatever it is, you know it’s big. Even when the thing does step out, you don’t see it—but other people do. They’re like, “Oh, it’s right there,” but the camera is just facing away from it. I was really impressed at how this film kept the tension going with that approach.
I mean, we’ve seen it before—Cloverfield. You don’t see the monster in Cloverfield until the end of the movie. We know something’s out there. We know that something is big, but it’s all about the characters surviving this thing. That technique doesn’t last forever in Hope. You do end up seeing the thing pretty soon, but I won’t lie to you—I kind of didn’t need to see it. I mean, in order for the movie to make sense, you do. You don’t need to see what the thing is in order to be impressed with the fact that that car just smashed into that car. And there’s some pretty intense stuff here.
Won’t lie—I was like, “This is a pretty desolate town, I’ve got to say.” This is not a post-apocalyptic film, but it really did feel like one because there’s really not a huge cast in this town. And granted, this thing’s tearing through it. Some people died, but not everybody. I’d like there to be more stragglers anyhow. Moving on.
Also, the reason I was like, “I could have gone for not seeing the monsters” is because when you do see the monster, you’re like, “That is so CGI.” I mean, not just everything’s CGI at this point—we get it. But this felt like a PS3 cutscene was AR’d into the live-action CGI. But it didn’t really bother me that much, which is oddly hypocritical. You know, it’s like if this was a Marvel movie, I’d be like, “No.” If this was most any Hollywood movie, I’d be like, “What were they thinking?” South Korean movie, yeah—but the movie’s fun, though. I’m aware of it. That’s the important thing, and hopefully my hypocrisy only goes so far.
But it might very well be a testament to how CGI doesn’t make or break a film. I mean, if you rest too much on the CGI, it will. But if you give me fun action with characters I’m rooting for, it can be, “All right, bad CGI, moving on. The movie’s fun.” I like to think it’s that.
This movie does have HoYeon—I believe that’s how you pronounce her name, HoYeon. She’s from Squid Game. She’s also on the poster of the film. She’s not the main character, but she is someone I did recognize from Squid Game season 1. The cop we follow is played by Hwang Jun Min. He’s the main character in this film. I’m just saying—Squid Game fans out there, your girl’s in here. Also, if you’ve never seen Squid Game, your girl’s in here.
But yeah, really, where this movie excels is the balls-to-the-wall action at times. A lot of gunfire, a lot of firefights. At one point, a dude’s hanging out of a car. I mean, it gets pretty nuts. Someone said, “You want to get nuts? Come on. Let’s get nuts.” And this movie said, “Okay.”
Funny thing about the CGI is it did progressively get better as the film went on. At one point, I was like, “Wow, I feel like this CGI has definitely improved. Looks like PS4 now.” By the end, I was like, “That PS5 remaster formula has now hit Korean cinema. Congratulations, world.” Hope this movie doesn’t come out as digital only, but you know.
At a point, though—I mean, this movie’s 2 hours and 40 minutes long. It does go, and it keeps going. And it does feel like it keeps going, to the point where there were certain threads that I feel are just unresolved. Granted, this movie does leave itself open for a sequel. There’s that. Maybe they’ll resolve it there, but I don’t feel they should have. I feel like they should have resolved it here, because it was so much a part of the plot. Trying to be vague here—spoiler-free review.
One could argue, “Hey, this is the why.” We have questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Any movie we watch, we’re thinking that, and we hope the movie answers those. We have a solid why, and then it’s like, “Oh, that’s thought-provoking.” All right, moving on to the firefights. Remember those? Let’s get back to the action.
Firefights—get some guns. Are you trying to market this to American audiences? Look, we love our guns, but we also like our thought-provoking threads to be properly pulled on and resolved. Especially the gun love. Speaking of which, man—gun rules. When I was first looking at the cop do his thing with this rifle, he’s just pointing it like, “Okay, yeah, this is—yep, is this registered?” And this thing’s pointing at this dude. This dude’s like, “Yep, I’d swear I registered it.” I’d be like, “Ripped off. Don’t do that. Stop. Safety first.” No such thing in here.
It’s a bummer, though, because I thought this movie was going into a thought-provoking, very interesting angle with this whole thing. It didn’t really do anything with it. Not really. Though, by the end, when the CGI is at its peak, it’s like, “All right, this looks noticeably better than how it looked earlier in the film.”
Also, this ending is kind of out of nowhere and nuts, and I’m supposed to know what’s being talked about, and I just don’t. Also, there are a couple of actor cameos who are absolutely not South Korean. Actors you’ll recognize—you’ll be like, “Is that?” Yes, they are. But in a world where this movie does kind of hop genres as it goes along, this was the moment I was like, “You hop genres, but I feel like you hopped scripts as well.”
Regardless, this movie’s actually a lot of fun. It has fun characters, all-out action, intensity, thrills, comedy, dark comedy. And it might very well undo all the progress made in showing the masses how much punishment the human body cannot take. I’m having myself a good time here—no alcohol required.
All right, so Hope—have you seen it? What did you think about it? Can’t be the only movie called Hope. So I’m going to say Hope, the 2026 film from South Korea. Have you seen it? What did you think about it? Whatever you thought, comment below.