WOODY MAGAZINE π¬ Film Edition Na Hong-jin Breaks His Silence — HOPE Is Coming
Na Hong-jin Breaks His Silence — HOPE Is Coming
In May 2016, when The Wailing (곑μ±, Goksung) screened at Cannes in the non-competition section, the jury president reportedly told director Na Hong-jin: "Next time, bring it to the competition." That was exactly ten years ago. Whether or not that promise will be kept is now riding on HOPE, Na's fourth feature film, arriving this summer.
The premise is not what anyone expected from the director of The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010). Set in the 1970s–80s in a fictional isolated harbor town called Hopo Port near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the story begins when local officer Beomsuk hears reports of a tiger lurking at the outskirts of town. It is not a tiger. Strange, otherworldly creatures begin tearing the village apart. Na Hong-jin — the man who turned serial killers and border-crossing contract workers into visceral horror — has stepped into science fiction. The genre shift alone is enough to make this one of the year's most talked-about films before a single frame has been screened publicly.
The casting is extraordinary by any standard. Korean heavyweights Hwang Jung-min (ν©μ λ―Ό), Jo In-sung (μ‘°μΈμ±), and Jung Ho-yeon (μ νΈμ°, known internationally from Squid Game) headline the Korean side. The alien characters are played by a quartet of acclaimed Hollywood actors: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander (who are also married in real life), Taylor Russell (Bones and All), and Cameron Britton (Mindhunter). A Korean director assembling this kind of Korea-Hollywood hybrid cast is, simply, unprecedented. Cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo (νκ²½ν), who shot The Wailing, returns to lens the film.
HOPE opens in Korean theaters in July. Given its timing, a Cannes competition entry is not out of the question — the festival announces its lineup in the weeks ahead. At a moment when Korean domestic cinema is facing a real box-office contraction, Na Hong-jin's return may be the most consequential test of what Korean film can still accomplish on the world stage.
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