Here's a cross-cultural frustration I didn't see coming: for once, the movie everyone will be talking about opens in Korea first — and America has to wait until September. Jinguk's family group chat is already planning opening-week tickets. I'll be over here, avoiding spoilers for two months.
The movie
It's called Hope, the new film from Na Hong-jin — the director of The Chaser, The Yellow Sea, and The Wailing — and his first feature in roughly a decade. It's set in a fictional DMZ border town called Hope Harbor: police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and rookie officer Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon, in her first feature role since Squid Game) hunt a mysterious creature laying waste to the village, while a band of hunters led by Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) tracks the beast through the surrounding forest — and becomes its prey. What starts as a local emergency, per the film's own synopsis, "spirals through human conflict into tragedy on a cosmic scale."
The rest of the cast is half the reason this is news outside Korea, too: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander (their first film together since 2016's The Light Between Oceans), Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton round it out in supporting roles. Behind the camera: Hong Kyung-pyo, the cinematographer behind Parasite and Burning, reuniting with Na after The Wailing; the score is by Michael Abels, the composer of Get Out and Nope. At 2 hours 40 minutes, it's long for a commercial action film — and Na has said he conceived it as the first chapter of a potential franchise.
It opens in Korean theaters Wednesday, July 15. NEON releases it in US theaters September 9 — part of a rollout to roughly 200 territories total, a record for a Korean title.
The money
Budget figures vary depending on the source, but the number circulating most is around ₩50 billion (about $33 million), which would make it the most expensive movie ever produced in Korea. What's not in dispute: the international pre-sales alone — sold across roughly 200 territories, a record for a Korean production — have already recouped nearly half the film's net production budget before a single ticket sells at home.
There's real weight behind that number. Plus M Entertainment, the distributor, and its sister theater chain Megabox — both under the JoongAng Group — filed for bankruptcy protection last month. A strong opening for Hope isn't just box-office bragging rights; it's breathing room for a company mid-restructuring. The Korean government is helping the odds along too, releasing 2.05 million discount movie-ticket coupons (about $3.90 off each) starting July 8, with Hope expected to be the main beneficiary — the last round of coupons lifted box office revenue 47.9% in a single week.
A word for what kind of movie this is
A creature feature is a monster movie — a film whose center of gravity is a non-human creature and the havoc it causes. It's an affectionate genre label in English, the kind critics use with a grin. Nobody expected the director of The Wailing to make one, which is exactly why people are curious.
What happened at Cannes
This is my favorite part. Hope premiered in competition at Cannes in May — the first Korean film to compete for the Palme d'Or since Decision to Leave in 2022 — and got a six-minute standing ovation that came with a wave of sharply divided reviews. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney was firmly on the positive side, calling it a "rip-roaring sci-fi creature feature" with "instant cult classic written all over it," praising the camerawork, score, and pacing. Variety was more mixed, calling it "hilarious, unwieldy, overlong" but also crediting it with "some of the most breathtakingly elegant action moviemaking of this or any year" — while noting it sits awkwardly in a prestige competition given how little interest it has in theme or subtext.
On aggregate: 82% positive on Rotten Tomatoes (39 critics, 6.5/10 average) and 68/100 on Metacritic ("generally favorable," 19 critics). The pattern across nearly every review is the same — the action direction gets real praise, the VFX takes hits, and reactions to the nearly three-hour runtime are genuinely split.
Six minutes of this at Cannes. Apparently it split the room anyway.How it's landing at home
As of two days before release, Hope holds more than 60% of all advance ticket sales nationwide and has passed 400,000 advance tickets sold — the fastest any release has hit #1 in advance sales this year, running nearly four times ahead of the runner-up. It opens the same day as "Minions & Monsters," with "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" not landing for another two weeks — about as clear a runway as a summer release gets.
What Jinguk thinks
Jinguk's take: this is the most Na Hong-jin outcome possible. His films have always divided audiences on first viewing and then grown in reputation — The Wailing baffled plenty of people in 2016 and is now routinely called one of the best Korean films of its decade. A director who disappears for a decade and comes back with the most expensive, strangest swing in Korean film history? That's not a red flag to Korean audiences. Maybe that's the reason to buy a ticket?
Why it matters
Korean films crossing over usually means one thing: a great movie made for Korea that the world discovers later. Hope is built differently — a Korean director, a Korean setting, and Hollywood stars inside it, releasing in Korea first with a major US theatrical run and a nearly 200-territory rollout already locked in before opening weekend. Whether it lands as a masterpiece or a beautiful mess, it's a real-time test of how far a Korean production can reach without leaving home — and, less romantically, whether it can keep a restructuring distributor afloat.
We'll be watching the Korean opening-week reaction closely (well — Jinguk will be translating the noisy parts of the internet for me). If you're in Korea and see it Wednesday: no spoilers, but tell me in the comments — genius or madness? Subscribe if you want the follow-up when it hits US theaters in September.
Tags: Hope, Na Hong-jin, Korean movies, Michael Fassbender, Hwang Jung-min, Jung Ho-yeon, Cannes, creature feature, cross-cultural life, miguktv,Through Korean Eyes
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