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.
It’s a question that seems mischievously on writer-director Na’s mind, as for a good portion of the outstandingly berserk first hour, it seems possible we will never actually see the creature causing the gloriously choreographed mayhem that is bedeviling the small town of Hope Harbor, South Korea. This shabby hamlet is close enough to its northern neighbor/nemesis that weathered billboards warn against landmines and urge residents to “Report Spies!” and “Guard Against Infiltrators!”
