Hope (2026)★ 7.2/10

There’s a movie that just came out that had one of my favourite trailers in a very long time. It’s called HOPE, a South Korean creature feature that blends genres like they’re in a mixing bowl. It’s funny, thrilling, action-packed, violent, suspenseful, silly, and thought-provoking. It simply careens through its 160-minute runtime. The story is separated into two paths. The first follows Chief of Police Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) as he investigates a slaughtered bull in the mining town of Hope Harbor. He eventually teams up with the badass rookie cop Im Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon from SQUID GAME) who I love. The second story follows Bum-seok’s second cousin Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) as he leads a group of hunters into the woods to track a creature. The first hour is a masterclass of tension and suspense, including a few amazing chase sequences. The CGI is wonky at times, but the creature designs are creative and memorable. This has the highest budget for a Korean movie at $46 million. They are experts in utilizing every dollar, unlike the bloated budgets of American movies. A lot of the tracking camera shots are so buttery smooth amidst the chaos that I questioned how cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo pulled them off. Some characters are cartoony while others are underwritten, but I wasn’t expecting much in that department anyway. The score is bombastic and fun. I love the world that writer/director Na Hong-jin has created, but the story doesn’t finish at the end. It gets too big for its britches, perhaps getting too ambitious. If this movie was called HOPE: PART 1, and had been cut off sooner, it would’ve been much more palatable for general audiences. Overall, HOPE has some of the very best individual scenes, but the story isn’t finished yet. I’m very intrigued as to where the story could go and I hope it’s just as awesome. I still recommend seeing this in the theater if possible!

Terror, suspenso y acción. El cine surcoreano vuelve al estilo de The Host (2006). Como en Duna de Denis Villeneuve: esto es el comienzo de algo grande.