CANNES, France (AP) — Sprawling action movies with aliens do not generally compete for the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. But Na Hong-jin’s “Hope” is not your average science fiction. Few movies were more anticipated in Cannes. It’s been 10 years since Na’s last film, the well-regarded 2016 thriller “The Wailing.” While some of Na’s fellow Korean genre masters, like Bong Joon Ho, have found global renown, for many cinephiles, Na is overdue for the kind of global introduction a Cannes premiere provides. But that doesn’t mean that Na, a few hours before debuting “Hope,” was feeling at ease. “I’m really nervous,” the writer-director said in an interview alongside the Cannes beach. “I didn’t imagine it would be so nerve-wracking to be honest, to the point of not sleeping.” Na’s movie, one of the most expensive Korean films ever made, certainly provides no rest. For two hours and 40 minutes, it takes a story that begins with the mysteriously scarred carcass of a dead bull and breathlessly and quite bloodily accumulates into a cosmically grand, audaciously gonzo sci-fi tale.
The headlong rush of Na’s bonkers would-be international blockbuster left Cannes alternatively awed, befuddled and thrilled. Variety’s Jessica Kiang called it “hilarious, unwieldy, overlong and featuring some of the most breathtakingly elegant action moviemaking of this or any year.”
