The first teaser for Hope has landed following polarising reactions at its Cannes Film Festival premiere on Sunday, 17 May.
South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin is accustomed to wild horror films, but our first glimpses of his newest film seems to be pushing that boundary even further.
Film News Blitz’s Oscar Trinick has more on the first trailer of this divisive film.
First details
Written and directed by Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea, The Chaser), Hope marks his return to the big screen since 2016’s The Wailing, a lengthy and unpredictable nightmare of a film.
The synopsis for Hope is as follows: ‘In the remote South Korean village of Hope Harbour, police chief Bum-seok and officer Sung-ae are called to investigate a mysterious creature wreaking havoc on the community. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.’
The main film stars of the film are South Korean actors Hwang Jung-min (The Wailing, A Bittersweet Life), Zo In-sung and Hoyeon (Squid Game, Disclaimer).
On the other side of things, the film sees Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, The Killer), Alicia Vikander (The Green Knight, Ex Machina), and Taylor Russell (Waves, Bones and All), all seemingly appear in more villainous roles, from what first reactions are saying.
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Trailer breakdown
To put it lightly, the first teaser for Na Hong-jin’s Hope is nuts.
The trailer opens on a sweeping shot of what we can only assume is the village of Hope Harbour, as its streets lie in ruins.
A police car comes sweeping by and drifts to a halt, as blood lines the roads.
An officer stops by a hole in the building wall, as something appears to have gone right through it, and out the other side.
He takes his gun and goes through, finding a door that has been smashed into a wall, with a visible human hand poking out from the side of it.
The officer looks toward a scream as someone runs out in the street, only to be crushed by a car that comes barrel rolling from behind him.
We cut away from the street action to a picturesque forest, as some hunters glide through deep woods holding their guns in suspense.
We cut through sequences of our characters, all loading their guns for action, as we cut to black and a character shouts, “RUN!”
Before you know it, a dog-like alien figure jumps across the shot and snatches someone up.
Then, as the camera moves out the window of a rapidly moving car, we see someone shooting at an alien figure running away in front of them.
In the next portion, there are wild glimpses of other aliens, including something small and pale on a dimly lit floor, as well as a massive blue creature stalking through the woods.
The trailer is capped off by a shot of a falling spaceship and a gruesome creature about to snatch up a rider, as it descends from the trees above.
Cannes reactions
The trailer itself offers so much to talk about: massive genre filmmaking, electric direction and a big twist.
The film premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May, with the reactions being nothing short of polarising.
One of the biggest talking points was the film’s CGI, with chief IndieWire critic David Ehrlich saying in his review, it has “some of the worst creature effects this side of the Syfy Channel or The Mummy Returns.”
He added, “that it’s fitting that a contemporary movie called Hope should kick off with an unparalleled jolt of excitement, only to fade so fast — and with such soul-sucking force — that you ultimately feel like an idiot for ever believing in a better outcome.”
On the other hand, others have been completely taken aback by its big action set pieces, its wild sense of adventure and its commitment to being seemingly absurd.
Who knows, does janky CGI bother you at all?
On Roger Ebert.com, critic Robert Daniels praised it saying that: “Na’s reputation should make anyone question their assumptions about Hope. The Wailing purposely bucked against conventional structuring to rework horror tropes into something far more unpredictable.
“This film’s wit moves with a similar spontaneity, keeping you on your guard for Na to swerve even when you think he might be flying far too straight.
“This bloody, motoring adventure relishes the unease it places on the audience, lulling one into a classic heroic Western before morphing into a surprising creature feature whose recollections of Predator and Prometheus further reckon with the morality viewers bring into sci-fi flicks.”
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