Absurd action storms through the film "Hope." In a vast, fictional forest—an ancient woodland—at the desperate moment when an alien descends, director Na Hong-jin's driving Korean western is completed. It was possible because actor Zo In-sung was at its center.
The film "Hope," which opened on the 15th (director/screenwriter Na Hong-jin, produced by Forged Films, co-produced by Plus M Entertainment·Westworld, provided/distributed by Plus M Entertainment) became a hot topic immediately after its release. Following Na Hong-jin's earlier works, which already drew varied reactions and interpretations, "Hope" is also generating audience reviews that swing between extremes.
Nonetheless, if there is one indisputable point, it is the film's sense of pace. Dense, high-difficulty action and fantastically detailed cinematography fill the 156 minutes so that you hardly notice the time passing, producing chills. Here we examine the action in "Hope" and the contribution of Zo In-sung at its center.
The character Seong-gi played by Zo In-sung is a local young man in Hopohang who does any profitable work. Not only that, he is a hometown native who dominates even the farming and fishing cooperatives, and he is a sixth cousin of the other protagonist, Hopohang police station chief Beom-seok (played by Hwang Jeong-gi). He sometimes acts like a vigilante, leading hunter brothers and passing various incidents and accidents occurring in the village to Beom-seok.
Still, Seong-gi, as played by Zo In-sung, is not a mere messenger. In the forest battle scenes, which are like the film's second act, he skillfully commands the group and, as a leader, confronts unidentified creatures. In fights with those things that are unfamiliar and undefinable, Seong-gi urges others not to pull the trigger easily, but he also steps forward and takes responsibility in the face of his uncontrollable comrades' fear. With his tall height, long arms and legs, skilled hunter's craft, and action imbued with a soul that has worn down his knees.
This contrasts even more with Beom-seok, the police chief who symbolizes the only law enforcement at the start of the film but is passive and reactive. Leading the hunters at the front and showing the vitality of Earthlings against Mabeyo (played by Michael Fassbender). No matter how often he is thrown into trees, unseated, and cast aside, he remains sturdy to the point of not knowing how to break, a look that makes one wonder if Na Hong-jin's mischievous character naming is intentional.
Furthermore, this connects to "Hope"'s ending, which makes one anticipate a sequel and suggests another phase. If Beom-seok is a character who feels sadness and guilt and reflects even toward an unidentified monster, and Seong-ae (played by Jung Ho-yeon) is a character who, grounded in the morality of law enforcement, insists that no matter how monstrous, one must not kill people, Seong-gi is a clear, straightforward hero representing human survival. If a "Hope" sequel that would contain more than a mere reunion of humans and monsters were to be made, it even leaves a hint that Beom-seok, Seong-gi, and Seong-ae could conflict and oppose one another.
Unlike Beom-seok and Seong-ae, who wear uniforms and represent verified law enforcement, Seong-gi's status as a respectable local youth and village vigilante also reminds us of this. Filmed in Korea, Romania and elsewhere, "Hope," though called Hopohang, maximizes Na Hong-jin's autonomous creativity within a fictional world that is difficult to set as Korea. In that world, Zo In-sung imprinted a different kind of sheriff image from the police: a red pickup truck unseen anywhere in Korea's past, a fur-lined denim jacket one might expect a western sheriff to wear, and a hunter's gun and bullets.
Even in the moment of eating radish greens and rice balls beside the remains of bodies in a dense forest instead of beer or whiskey in a sand-blown pub, Zo In-sung made this strange combination look like a cinematic mise-en-scène. The actor's presence and ability to inhabit the directed setting combine to spark the imagination: if a Korean-style western, a Korean western, had existed, might it have looked like this?
Just as, in Na Hong-jin's previous film "The Wailing," no one could take their eyes off Hwang Jung-min playing a shaman, in "Hope" it is the reason why Seong-gi, played by Zo In-sung, could not be erased from viewers' minds no matter how often he walked the woods with Hwang Jung-min, Jung Ho-yeon, and other lesser-known supporting actors. Finally emerging from the woods and racing across fields and roads in action that blends western and car-chase elements and presses through to the end, Zo In-sung delivers everything from the terror of becoming a chase target who could be torn apart by aliens at any moment to the farcical laughter of trembling countryside antics, revealing it all with a single stroke. It is a presence that makes one want to see it on screen again and again.
[Photo] Provided by Plus M Entertainment.
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