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‘Hope’ Review: Na Hong-jin’s Overlong Creature Feature is a Guns-Blazing Riot of Bawdy Humor, Bad CGI and Brilliant Action

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CitrixNews Staff
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‘Hope’ Review: Na Hong-jin’s Overlong Creature Feature is a Guns-Blazing Riot of Bawdy Humor, Bad CGI and Brilliant Action
May 17, 2026 3:10pm PT ‘Hope’ Review: Na Hong-jin’s Overlong Creature Feature is a Guns-Blazing Riot of Bawdy Humor, Bad CGI and Brilliant Action

Despite subpar creature effects and silly stabs at mythology, for about 70% of its hefty runtime, the Korean master's fourth film is among the best — and funniest — action movies you have ever seen.

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Jessica Kiang

See All Hope Courtesy of Plus M Entertainment

For a whole decade since 2016’s extraordinarily uncanny horror-hybrid “The Wailing,” fans of Korean director Na Hong-jin have been peering anxiously at the horizon awaiting his next uncategorizable genre mash-up. More recently, like a bumbling local police chief removing his mirrored aviators to squint at an unidentifiable what-the-hell-is-that wreaking havoc in the distance, we’ve tracked reports of his new project, which despite a high-profile international cast and the largest production budget in Korean film history, remained almost until the last second shrouded in secrecy. Now that “Hope” is here — hilarious, unwieldy, overlong and featuring some of the most breathtakingly elegant action moviemaking of this or any year — one has to ask if anything could possibly have lived up to the anticipation.

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