The acclaimed filmmaker explains how fear, classic Hollywood movies and Asian mythology shaped his ambitious alien thriller.
Hope might be the unexpected hit that the September theatrical slate needed as Na Hong-Jin delivers what’s perhaps his most ambitious film yet. Unlike his other works, this film is a three-hour ride that puts viewers in the center of human-alien action. It follows cop duo Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and Sung-ae (Hoyeon) as they track down a monster that’s destroying the local village, which turns out to be a much more intelligent creature. However, they soon discover a much grander scheme involving aliens, disasters, and much more.
Considering how much is packed into Hope, Hong-Jin’s newest film gives viewers a lot of chases, destruction, and so much more. I had the opportunity to speak with Hong-Jin about developing Hope, the idea of the “other”, filming past action sequences, and the effects that audiences have continuously talked about online.
Hong-Jin Explores the Fear of the “Other” in Hope
One prevalent theme that seems to be present in Hong-Jin’s work is the fear of the “other.” Hope makes this incredibly clear through the introduction of the aliens, who are revealed to be more intelligent than they let on. However, Hong-Jin’s previous films, like The Wailing and The Yellow Sea, incorporate this idea in unique ways. The Wailing sees this through the suspicions of a Japanese man living in a Korean village while The Yellow Sea deals with this directly through its protagonist.
Speaking on this idea, Hong-Jin explained how the fear of the “other” helps audiences understand that need for hope and optimism.
“I would say that a lot of my films highlight bad or negative aspects of society, but I do feel, at the core, the message is the hope for good,” Hong-Jin stated. “I don’t know if that’s a feeling that I only have from my films, but I really do think that that’s what my films are trying to say.”
Given how Hope‘s characters react differently to their situation, the variety of perspectives also contributes to how people fear things not familiar to them. Hong-Jin reflected on his own personal experiences and how he integrated that into his side characters in the film.
“It’s really hard for me to watch thrillers, and I have a lot of fear in my day-to-day life,” Hong-Jin noted. “So fear is actually not something that I’ve had to think deeply about because it’s so inherent to who I am as a person.”
Hope Uses Humor to Keep Audiences Guessing
Although Hope is thematically tragic, there are some surprising moments of comedy that lighten the mood. One of these scenes sees Hoyeon’s character, Sung-ae, hearing an injured hunter recounting his encounter with the creatures. Despite it establishing the stakes, its unexpected inclusion of poop definitly had some viewers laughing. Talking about those moments, Hong-Jinn briefly spoke on why and how he included such moments.
“I would say that I put humor in the end of a big action sequence or when tides are turning emotionally or even really suddenly,” Hong-Jin explained.
“I would say that what I really try to avoid the most is my audience members predicting the next scene and I really don’t want that to happen, so I try to break their expectations at all costs, and sometimes I do that with humor.”
The Yellow Sea Helped Hong-Jin Prepare for Hope’s Action
Aside from the comedy, Hope is a thrill ride from beginning to end with non-stop action that gets incredibly chaotic. However, Hong-Jin’s newest film isn’t the first time the director has dealt with grand scale action moments. In The Yellow Sea, Hong-Jin directed a long hunt sequence where its protagonist was hunted in the streets of Seoul. From running through apartments to crashing police cars, this sequence was regarded as one of the best action sequences in South Korean cinema.
Reflecting on his time with that film, Hong-Jin compared the difficulties he had on The Yellow Sea that he overcame with creating Hope.
“In terms of The Yellow Sea, we did not have pertinent preparation for shooting that chase sequence,” Hong-Jin said. “I would say that’s a sequence that we undertook with a greater sense of bravery. However, with Hope, the preparation process was much more meticulous, so it went very smoothly and according to plan.”
“It was a lot more professional so the two experiences were hugely different,” Hong-Jin explained. “With Yellow Sea, I feel like there was an element of wanting kind of revenge for how things went poorly in the past. So I was able to make it up through shooting Hope.”
How Jaws and Steven Spielberg Inspired Hope
Notably, Hong-Jin previously stated that one of the tonal inspirations of Hope came from Jaws, the 1975 shark-hunting horror movie that many consider a classic. When it came to executing those large-scale action moments, there was one scene that Hong-Jin was heavily inspired by: the chumming scene that first introduces the shark. Hong-Jin also spoke on how this scene’s structure worked for him.
“I would say that it’s definitely the scene from Jaws that everyone loves. I think movies of that time, they tend to have a very similar sense of structure so I wanted Hope to almost seem like one of those movies and then go into different direction altogether.”
“The beginning of the film will seem very similar to a very typical movie of that nature, and then we go in our very own way,” Hong-Jin described. “I would say that we got also a lot of inspiration from Steven Spielberg’s work. Watching those movies, we watched them and thought, ‘Oh, it’d be interesting if we took sort of these devices and gave it our own variation.'”
Hong-Jin Responds to Hope’s Avatar Comparisons
As for the creatures of Hope, many viewers took to social media to talk about the effects, which resulted in some mixed reviews. Some made comparisons to other humanoid creatures in other movies, like Marvel Studios’ Eternals and James Cameron’s Avatar. Speaking more on the creation of the creature CGI, Hong-Jin went in-depth into the development process.
“I would say that actually Avatar is the movie we tried to stray from at all costs,” Hong-Jin noted. “In the process of face mapping with actors, I think it’s almost impossible not for people not to see some similarities, but we tried to avoid or any other kind of similar aspects from Avatar. We couldn’t really run away from the world that Avatar occupies.”
“In terms of the design of the alien themselves, I would say that we were initially really drawn to the strange images of photos, things that people had taken during a time where people felt like they had alien sightings. However, the design went through some changes when we realized that we really thought that those initial sketches would be very difficult for those aliens to express emotions with their facial features.”
“We changed into a more retro direction as we were considering live-action rendition of these creatures and we wanted to feel a lot more cinematic. Rather than relying on a Northern European design or conception of a creature, we leaned into more Japanese animation, inspiration from like Asian mythology. Kind of motifs and line work, like robots. So we went more into that direction.”
Hope’s Ending Could Lead to a Larger Alien Story
Additionally, Hong-Jin also spoke on whether or not audiences will see where the aliens came from in a potential sequel to Hope. Even though the film’s ending results in a catastrophe for its characters, it does set up a larger interesting narrative.
“As for the backstory of the aliens, it almost feels as if it is the end of the world. And the humans will do everything in their power to protect their own village, while the aliens have a different motive of trying to find their offspring. The collision of their two motives is really reflected in a perspective shift that the audience is going to feel from the humans themselves to the aliens.”
Hope is now playing in theaters.
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