I Saw Both Cuts of ‘Hope.’ Na Hong-jin Turned a Cannes Letdown into an Action-Movie Triumph

Director Na Hong-jin spent nearly a decade on “Hope” — a massive sci-fi/horror action movie that’s reportedly the highest-budgeted South Korean film ever made. It pushed the boundaries of the country’s motion capture and CGI creature capabilities — possibly too far, according to audiences at its Cannes premiere.

Programmed in competition against the restraint of international auteurs like Paweł Pawlikowski (“Fatherland”) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“All of a Sudden”), “Hope” gave Cannes a much-needed jolt. In the charged Debussy Theatre, “Hope” had a good portion of its boisterous audience on the edge of their seats throughout its 200-minute running time.

Afterward, praise came rushing in, with The Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic David Rooney calling “Hope” an “instant cult classic.” Reviews, however, were divided. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich described the film’s first third as “a spellbinding and gleefully frenetic mega-setpiece”… until the final 100 minutes, which introduced the central monster and other CGI creatures that he lambasted as some of the worst he’d ever seen.

None of that stopped Neon from acquiring the film, which it will release in North America September 10. And the criticism didn’t entirely surprise director Na, who was still making significant sound and editing choices in the days leading up to Cannes. In post-premiere interviews, he indicated he was likely to continue working on the film before release.

“I was hearing it for the first time [at the premiere], and I had so many things that I wanted to tinker with,” said Na, via interpreter Estelle Lee, on an upcoming episode of IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast.

Last week, the re-edited and final version of “Hope” opened in South Korea and became the country’s fastest-grossing film ever with 2.6 million tickets sold within five days. While in town for the New York Asian Film Festival, where “Hope” made its U. S. premiere, Na came to the IndieWire offices to discuss the film’s changes after Cannes.

CGI Creatures

‘Hope’Courtesy Everett Collection

On the podcast, the “Hope” director went in-depth about his CGI creature creation, with performance-capture performances by Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell. He emphasized their human faces and emotions, but their creature characters have monster-like exteriors. They move with distinctly ramped-up speed, movement, and force; it’s a sharp contrast to modern American sci-fi action movies. That sensation becomes more acute with Na’s bold choice to stage the entire film in daylight.

For Ehrlich, the results had “all the credibility of a glitch in a computer game.” (Rooney called it “strikingly original.”)

Na told IndieWire he tried to address that in the re-edit. “50 to 60 minutes in, the creature animation, that’s also something that I tried to re-edit and work with more.” He also said that the centerpiece creature, Va’migere (Cameron Britton), underwent a significant revision, but other CGI creature work remained largely untouched.

I saw both the Cannes premiere and the re-edited version, and my response to the CGI initially fell somewhere between Rooney and Ehrlich. The scene that introduces Va’migere no longer bumps in quite the same way in the new version, nor did it take me out of the film as it did at Cannes.

I also aligned far more with Rooney’s views on the “strikingly original” CGI work. How much of that is due to changes to its introduction, versus my becoming more accustomed to and appreciating the stark originality that’s likely aided by revised sound editing and mixing? Hard to say.

Second Act Re-Edits

‘Hope’Courtesy Everett Collection

There were noticeable improvements made to the film’s second act. After the confrontation with Va’migere ends, “Hope” alternates between three storylines as the police chief (Hwang Jung-min), officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon), and the local hunters (led by actor Zo In-sung’s Sung-ki character) search for answers. While the re-edited version is only four to five minutes shorter, omissions, additions, and restructuring supply a better narrative flow between the concurrent story threads.

Na said he removed scenes as well as shots. “ There’s a scene there where a crane is removing the body of the dead alien, and I took that out because I thought it was a bit redundant,” he said. “And then there’s also a scene in the forest where Sung-ki [is] riding on horseback; he sees, in the distance in the forest, there’s some sort of flickering or shiny object, but I took that out as well.”

He also added footage of Yang Bae (Eum Moon-suk), a dim-witted carpenter and taxidermist who alerts the police chief to the dead alien and provides comic relief.

The individual changes to “Hope” are not enormous. The CGI work wasn’t overhauled and polished, as some had hoped. And removing four-plus minutes from a 160-minute Cannes cut isn’t all that radical. That said, the revised film plays far more smoothly. Na said he did the most extensive work in sound design, something viewers often underestimate in the viewing experience.

Like many at Cannes, I loved the film’s first third but found the rest disappointing. The revised “Hope,” however, played from beginning to end like one of the best action films I’ve seen in years. How much is attributable to the changes made to this tighter and improved version, versus the power of a second viewing? That’s harder to quantify — but if it’s a good movie, does it really matter?