Hope (2026) Review

Hope is a new sci-fi action film from acclaimed director Hongjin Na. In the shadow of high tensions between North and South Korea, the tight-knit, rural community of Hope Harbor must now deal with a greater foreign threat.

There are some common themes running through all of Hongjin Na’s films. Individualism, anarchism, xenophobia. Think Nietzsche, or better yet, Tolkien. All of this is continued in Hope, and it feels as coherent, subtle, and balanced as ever.

Like in The Chaser, The Yellow Sea, and The Wailing, we once again see a protagonist that must rise above the duties of his job description and see beyond the black-and-white to do what needs to be done.

Jungmin Hwang plays a straight-laced, local cop that just wants to follow “the book”, often placing the greater good over the individual. In one moment in the first act, a ragtag group of local elders pick up Hwang in a truck. Hwang questions if their guns are legally registered (a recurring bit that always lands) and they rightfully give him a scolding as to a silly grandchild.

Perhaps if the movie’s trailer put this setting and character more upfront rather than featuring monster action sequences, it would appeal to a broader American audience. After all, I felt like Hope Harbor was just like my hometown in Ohio. I knew that cop growing up, and I knew his cousin, and those townspeople. It could have been portrayed as something closer to JJ Abram’s Super 8.

Alongside our cop protagonist, played by Hwang, is a series of standout performances. Hoyeon (known for Squid Game) plays a rookie cop whose strong moral compass overrides her fear and brings out all of the badass energy and charisma of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Alien series. Peppered in are several townspeople that you instantly fall in love with for their bluntness and authenticity.

Speaking of the townspeople, Hope is by far Na’s funniest film. As in The Wailing, there is a fantastic monologue here where a character tells a story, flashing back to the events in the middle of the story. This riotously funny monologue lasted longer than it needed to, but it was geniunely the highlight of the whole 2nd act. Na often cuts his films with dry humor even in the darkest of stories. But he really went all-in this time on the eccentric, but heartfelt character interactions. One recurring “bit” about townspeople offering our protagonists food in unexpected situations displays this perfectly. None of the humor overstayed its welcome or hurt the overall tone of the movie either.

The antagonist faction is all played by western performers; a subtlety that could be lost on the audience if not for the blue and green eyes of the characters. I won’t say more about this because there are several delightful surprises as the story unfolds. But I can’t help but think that this story will be even more relevant as geopolitics marches on in the coming decades.

The production design for Hope is immersive and transporting. Whether it’s a ruined small-town storefront with wires and debris hanging from the ceiling making it look like the characters are walking into a monster’s lair, or even just an office or workshop (I think this story is set ~1995), the props, design, and decor are gorgeous and authentic. There is also a whole setting and design of the antagonist faction that will surprise you in the amount of detail and work put into the practical sets.

The cinematography is some of the best in Hongjin Na’s filmography. Na reunited with Kyungpyo Hong from The Wailing. Hong was also the cinematographer on Parasite. What really set Hope’s cinematography apart were the expansive, larger than life shots composed in a handheld manner. Similar to The Brutalist or something from Terrence Malick, it just felt like a breath of fresh air. Thinking back now, many of the shots were celebratory in nature; in other words, hopeful.

The action was extremely legible. The viewer is never confused about where things are and what’s happening. The only thing I can compare it to is James Cameron with Terminator 2. There is literally a 90’s cop car burning through the streets doing 180-degree drift turns, which is something that I didn’t realize I was sorely lacking in my visual stimulae. Another action highlight was a particular chase sequence in the 3rd act. The action involved was objectively small, but Na made it so thrilling that the audience in my screening were audibly reacting and laughing just to cut the unrelenting tension.

Having said all this, there were quite a few chase sequences that could possibly be trimmed down. That may push Hope a bit into Terminator 3 territory rather than Terminator 2. But honestly that is a matter of taste. I never looked at my watch once during my screening and I am always one to complain about movies being too long.

Some of the CGI also left me a bit puzzled. It was hard to tell what was meant to be stylized and what may have been unfinished or rushed by a post-production contract that ran out of budget. If stylized, several images harken to Attack on Titan. It will be interesting to hear more about this aspect of the production as the years go on.

What is the “hope” in Hope? The hope of understanding? The hope of peace? The hope of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, perhaps. It’s difficult to say with certainty at this time, but I am invested in the world that Na has built and the story that he is telling.

As this article’s subtitle alludes to, I think Hongjin Na has crafted another film that will strongly appeal to fans of classic American cinema, both in content and form. When I first watched The Chaser and The Wailing I couldn’t help but think of Spielberg, Scorsese, and Fincher.

In some ways, Hongjin Na is like a Korean Tarantino, taking everything he loves and blending them up into the exact movie that he wants to see. In the case of Hope, we got a delicous Godzilla, Super 8, Aliens, Tremors, Jaws, Avatar, Terminator smoothie. But that is not to say that this is a derivative story with nothing unique about it. Quite the opposite. Go see it.