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| Images courtesy of Neon |
A fun fact about raccoons is that they have super-sensitive paws, and they get over half of their sensory input from their sense of touch. Because of this, when they find food in the wild, they dunk it in water, which softens the skin on their paws and lets them examine it more thoroughly. A viral internet video shows a raccoon that finds a piece of cotton candy and promptly dips it into a puddle, where it disappears instantly. The raccoon is visibly confused and upset.
Why do I bring up this raccoon, you ask? I felt like that damn raccoon while watching Na Hong-jin's newest film, Hope (2026). Every time I thought I had a handle on the plot, a new twist would dissolve my understanding, and it would melt away like cotton candy in a dirty puddle. This doesn't mean Hope is a bad film, but it's unfocused, with peaks and valleys.
On its most basic level, Hope is a creature feature, and when it focuses on that aspect (mostly concentrated in the first hour), it is outstanding. Some sort of monster is wreaking havoc in Hope Harbor, a rural community in South Korea, and the local police chief (played by Hwang Jung-min) is investigating the issue. It quickly blows up into the creature devastating the small community, killing folks and destroying property, and it follows the chief as he travels through the destruction, trying to survive and figure out what the hell is going on.
The pacing in the first act is immaculate, as we follow both the police chief in the village and a group of local hunters in the forest who are looking for the monster's origin. It isn't obvious at first, but this film is a period piece, most likely set in the '80s, which gives it a nostalgic feel, and Na Hong-jin is clearly drawing on '80s classics like Aliens (1986) and Predator (1987). Though it will very likely be a controversial decision, the film also throws in purposeful bits of humor, almost as if the director is satirizing action films; people are funny sometimes, even in dire situations. If anything, it makes the situation more relatable and grounds what is mostly a fantastical atmosphere.
As the film shows its hand in the second half, it might lose some viewers completely. It is quite topical, as immigration is a hot topic in Korea. The film's political turn is unmistakably contemporary despite the '80s setting. Due to an aging population and low birth rate, Korea relies on immigrants to provide labor, but these workers are sometimes exploited and treated as less than. The aliens can be seen as an allegory for this dynamic, and the film attempts to paint the humans as the aggressors and the aliens as the victims.
It doesn't quite gel because the audience isn't privy to the creatures' motivation until the very end and spends more time with the human characters. The ending is poetic in a way, as it doesn't try to explain why the aliens are on Earth, but it still lets them voice their feelings. You don't have to understand someone to empathize with them; that's the point. That being said, people crave closure, and Hope purposely denies it, which is a bold move. At least the action is amazing up to that point, right?
--Michelle Kisner