Hope (2026)

You won’t have seen a film with as many contrasts as Na Hong-jin’s Hope.

At once impeccably crafted and beautiful, but also batshit crazy and prone to toilet humour interludes.

At times you can feel what is supposedly the biggest budget in Korean cinema history with some jaw-dropping scenery, sets and mise-en-scene but the CGI creaks like a PlayStation 1 videogame.

It’s a monster film, a sci-fi film, a (kind of) apocalyptic thriller, an action movie, a quasi-real time horror, a comedy and everything in between.

It is also two and a half hours where not a huge amount actually happens and yet is still, seemingly, only ‘Part 1.’

It is certainly unique.

The first hour flies by as we follow an eminently likable but somewhat bumbling police chief as he comes to terms with what appears to be a monster on the loose in a small village.

Keeping the monster smartly out of site whilst we navigate that aforementioned wonderfully detailed and realised scenery, it’s a properly interesting version of the classic monster movie.

Once the nature of the creature is then revealed, the film switches up and we explore different groups in their pursuit before reaching a set piece for the ages featuring a car, a horse and a grenade launcher.

That scene has got a Mad Max: Fury Road/Deathproof/John Wick: Chapter 4 energy to the chaos, it's a modern classic scene.

It’s absolutely fair to say that the film is overlong and certainly will not be to all tastes. The tonal shifts, the reveal, the ending and some of the tangents will surely put some off.

For those riding that wave though, it’s quite something.

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