‘Hope’ Trailer: Na Hong-jin’s Creature Feature Is South Korea’s Most Expensive Film Ever
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- Na Hong-jin directed "Hope," his first English-language feature and reportedly the most expensive film ever produced in South Korea at ₩50 billion (~$33 million USD), building on his earlier trilogy "The Chaser," "The Yellow Sea," and "The Wailing."
- "Hope" premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival as one of the festival's most anticipated debuts, drawing mixed reviews and polarizing critical reactions.
- IndieWire's David Ehrlich praised the first third of the film, comparing its spectacle to "The Host" and the Paris sequence of "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," but called the remainder a "massive disappointment."
- The film stars Hwang Jung-Min, Zo In-Sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender, with a plot centered on a mysterious creature terrorizing the remote village of Hope Harbor.
- Neon is set to release "Hope" in American theaters on Wednesday, September 9.
Why it matters: At a reported ₩50 billion (~$33 million USD), "Hope" surpasses every prior South Korean production in budget, marking a high-water mark for the country's genre filmmaking and for Neon's appetite for auteur-driven creature features on the international stage.
