When a creature lays waste to his village, a local cop (Hwang Jung-min) and a ragtag group of survivors head into the woods to uncover its origins - and into a showdown with its compatriots, who are on a mission of their own.
I am so glad I avoided the trailers for this one.
It earns its 160 minute runtime.
The film spends so much time on its opening setpiece, following the police chief as he struggles to keep up with the unseen ‘monster’ laying waste to his village.
Even before the creature is revealed, the film starts to problematise and muddy the clear demarcation between the humans and their strange adversary.
Our protagonist accidentally shoots a civilian, and it is not clear if he will cover it up.
He still tries to save him but leaves it to his accomplice to clean it up.
When the creature is finally shown, the film takes great pains to show its vulnerability.
It can take more punishment than a human, but it is still wounded, and shows pain.
Its rage is further grounded by the obvious tears in its eyes - a mystery that the film resolves around midway through the film.
Stories of the film’s Cannes reaction had primed me somewhat, but the visualisation of the aliens worked for me. Part of it is the careful use of practical special effects to showcase their sheer power, and the emphasis on creating tactile physics for the CGI characters.
They are fast and can jump, but their movements have a sense of weight and physical exertion.
Most of the film is focussed on the human characters but these moments with the antagonists mean the film turns into a juggling match of audience identification - particularly after it is revealed a casual act of human cruelty is responsible for the entire calamity.
The aliens only speak halfway through, and we only get subtitles in the closing scenes.
Halfway through the film, the film’s Hollywood imports are revealed: I was a little unsure at first (Taylor Russell gets the least screen time), but Vikander and especially Fassbender are clearly identifiable.
I am not that familiar with the Korean cast, but they are great, walking the line between human tragedy and cartoon farce, from Hwang Jung-min as the chief - exasperated, terrified and out of patience - to Ahn Nak-yeon as a retired military man who gets roped into the action.
The most iconic character is officer Im Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon), a policewoman who gets an all-timer entrance, driving into the middle of the war zone with a carload of heavy artillery.
Following another extended set-piece in the woods, the finale turns into a deranged Looney Toon as our human protagonists try to outrace the aliens while trying a mid-chase dismount involving a horse.
The film then throws the viewer into the aliens’ POV, with an info dump of names and concepts that are never fully explained. It could be infuriating, but I left the film excited.
It made me want to watch the movie again - and if there is a sequel, I am there on day one.
While it ends on a vaguely cosmic, suddenly tragic note, it is worth emphasising how funny the movie is: from the recurring bit of everyone in the village having guns, to a local hunter’s protracted monologue about discovering the aliens while taking a shit in the woods.
One interesting aspect of this flashback that relates to the film’s focus on perspective is that all the aliens look like the first alien we see - it is revealed to be Officer Im’s imagined idea of the old man’s story (when we do see the aliens, they are all distinct from each other).
The film is also filled with vivid human creeps - the lip-smacking sociopath (Eum Moon-suk) hiding a clue to the mysterious visitors is the closest thing the film has to an outright villain.
I am so eager to read more around the film - the monster appearing on the border feels like an image weighted with subtext.
A fantastic oddity, Hope is one of the most memorable films I have seen this year.
