Hope

In a quiet coastal village near the South Korean border, bumbling police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and his sharp deputy Sung-ae (Hoyeon) are called to investigate a mauled bull on a rural road. What starts as a local mystery quickly spirals into chaos when an unearthly, incredibly destructive threat descends upon the town. Cut off from outside reinforcements by raging wildfires, Bum-seok and a band of trigger-happy local hunters venture into the surrounding mountains to track the beast, only to find themselves hopelessly outmatched in a fight for survival. Selected in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Hope marks the longawaited return of director Na Hong-jin (The Wailing, The Chaser) in South Korea’s most ambitious production to date. Combining creature feature survival action, dark satirical humor, and an international ensemble that includes Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender, Na subverts classic blockbuster tropes with visceral set-pieces and Hong Kyung-pyo’s widescreen cinematography. Shot on an enormous scale with relentless pacing, it is a muscular genre spectacle engineered specifically for the big-screen experience. In Korean with English subtitles. Rated NC16 for Coarse Language and Violence.