Director Na Hong-jin, known for his tightly-wound thrillers like "The Chaser" and the horror mystery "The Wailing," has ventured into new territory with his latest film, "Hope." Abandoning the slow-burn storytelling of his previous work, "Hope" is a fast-paced sci-fi action thriller designed to maintain a sense of urgency throughout its runtime.
"When we were shooting, that was the main thing we were focused on," Na stated in an interview. "We really wanted to continue this pace, this sense of speed, and have it persist throughout the entire runtime of the film." This commitment to speed was a driving force during production and influenced various aspects of the film, from camera work to creature design.
The film is set in the remote seaside village of Hope Harbor, where police chief Bum-seok and rookie officer Sung-ae investigate a series of bizarre maulings by a mysterious creature. What begins as a tense investigation, with glimpses of the creature's destructive aftermath, quickly escalates into a full-blown extraterrestrial disaster that engulfs the town. The narrative emphasizes momentum, employing techniques like car-mounted cameras and characters sprinting through perilous landscapes to create a feeling of being constantly on the run. Even in quieter moments, an underlying tension suggests a lurking threat.
Designing Unique Creatures
Na Hong-jin dedicated several years to developing the alien creatures for "Hope," aiming for an untraditional look that departed from typical monster movie fare. "When you see films like this, a lot of the time, the monster will be very slow. That is an approach we didn't really want to take," Na explained. The design process initially focused on realism but evolved over the long development period to ensure originality and avoid overlap with existing cinematic creatures. "We were kind of considering the current trends of creatures. There were creatures we were trying to avoid, of course, to avoid overlap with different films that were coming out," he said.
One of the prominent aliens in the film bears a resemblance to the Labyrinth Madman from FromSoftware's "Bloodborne," particularly in its chaotic, animalistic movements, though Na states "Bloodborne" was not a direct influence. The goal was to create an alien that felt anonymous and unsettling, drawing inspiration broadly from folklore. "It's supposed to be an alien and almost anonymous, without a sense of identity," Na noted.
Despite the potential for grotesque violence enabled by extensive visual effects, Na chose to moderate the gore. "At the final stages of post-production, the VFX supervisor would show me some cuts that were incredibly violent. It was almost disgusting to look at," he recalled. Instead of relying on explicit bloodbaths, the film aims to create impact through exaggeration and suggestion, with a deliberate reduction of red visuals.
Returning to Familiar Themes with a New Scale
While "Hope" expands into a large-scale sci-fi spectacle, it retains Na's core interests in physical violence, escalating danger, and ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. The film revisits Na's fascination with isolated communities, using the fictional Hope Harbor, based on the real coastal village of Namchang-ri, as a pressure cooker environment. "I personally love really small villages in Korea. I'm not particularly interested in Korean cities because I don't find them to be particularly unique," Na said.
"The Wailing" explored despair and misfortune, whereas "Hope" is built around a different central idea. "Like the title itself, the characters have a genuine sense of hope," Na said. The film examines the fleeting nature of hope once a desire is realized and the human tendency to cling to that feeling even when it is destined to fail.
Na views "Hope" not as a departure from his established career but as a potential detour before returning to thrillers. "Thrillers are what I've always done, and it's the genre I love the most," he stated. "Hope" takes the elements he cherishes in thrillers—escalation, fear, and impossible situations—and places them on a larger stage. The film ultimately delves into the darker aspects of human nature, highlighting negative traits and serving as a cautionary tale about how people might react under extreme duress. "By the end of the film, it definitely highlights a lot of negative aspects of humanity," Na concluded. "It also tells the audience that we shouldn't be like this."