{"id":602752,"date":"2026-07-24T23:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602752\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:00:19","slug":"hope-re-edit-how-na-hong-jins-action-movie-changed-since-cannes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602752\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hope’ Re-Edit: How Na Hong-jin’s Action Movie Changed Since Cannes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Director Na Hong-jin<\/a> spent nearly a decade on \u201cHope<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a massive sci-fi\/horror action movie that\u2019s reportedly the highest-budgeted South Korean film<\/a> ever made. It pushed the boundaries of the country\u2019s motion capture and CGI creature capabilities \u2014\u00a0possibly too far, according to audiences at its Cannes premiere. <\/p>\n

Programmed in competition against the restraint of international auteurs like Pawe\u0142 Pawlikowski (\u201cFatherland\u201d) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (\u201cAll of a Sudden\u201d), \u201cHope<\/a>\u201d gave Cannes a much-needed jolt. In the charged Debussy Theatre, \u201cHope\u201d had a good portion of its boisterous audience on the edge of their seats throughout its 200-minute running time. <\/p>\n

\"Paramount<\/a> \"'72<\/a> <\/p>\n

Afterward, praise came rushing in, with The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s chief film critic David Rooney calling \u201cHope\u201d<\/a> an \u201cinstant cult classic.\u201d Reviews, however, were divided. IndieWire\u2019s David Ehrlich described<\/a> the film\u2019s first third as \u201ca spellbinding and gleefully frenetic mega-setpiece\u201d\u2026 until the final 100 minutes, which introduced the central monster and other CGI creatures that he lambasted as some of the worst he\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n

None of that stopped Neon from acquiring the film, which it will release in North America September 10. And the criticism didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hearing it for the first time [at the premiere], and I had so many things that I wanted to tinker with,\u201d said Na, via interpreter Estelle Lee, on an upcoming episode of IndieWire\u2019s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, the re-edited and final version of \u201cHope\u201d opened in South Korea and became the country\u2019s fastest-grossing film ever<\/a> with 2.6 million tickets sold within five days. While in town for the New York Asian Film Festival<\/a>, where \u201cHope\u201d made its U. S. premiere, Na came to the IndieWire offices to discuss the film\u2019s changes after Cannes.<\/p>\n

CGI Creatures<\/p>\n

\"HOPE,\u2018Hope\u2019Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

On the podcast, the \u201cHope\u201d director went in-depth about his CGI creature creation, with performance-capture performances by Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander,<\/a> 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\u2019s a sharp contrast to modern American sci-fi action movies. That sensation becomes more acute with Na\u2019s bold choice to stage the entire film in daylight.<\/p>\n

For Ehrlich, the results had \u201call the credibility of a glitch in a computer game.\u201d (Rooney called it \u201cstrikingly original.\u201d) <\/p>\n

Na told IndieWire he tried to address that in the re-edit. \u201c50 to 60 minutes in, the creature animation, that\u2019s also something that I tried to re-edit and work with more.\u201d He also said that the centerpiece creature, Va\u2019migere (Cameron Britton), underwent a significant revision, but other CGI creature work remained largely untouched.<\/p>\n

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\u2019migere 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.<\/p>\n

I also aligned far more with Rooney\u2019s views on the \u201cstrikingly original\u201d 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\u2019s likely aided by revised sound editing and mixing? Hard to say.<\/p>\n

Second Act Re-Edits<\/p>\n

\"HOPE,\u2018Hope\u2019Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

There were noticeable improvements made to the film\u2019s second act. After the confrontation with Va\u2019migere ends, \u201cHope\u201d alternates between three storylines as the police chief (Hwang Jung-min), o\ufb03cer Sung-ae (Hoyeon), and the local hunters (led by actor Zo In-sung\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Na said he removed scenes as well as shots. \u201c\u200aThere\u2019s 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,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s also a scene in the forest where Sung-ki [is] riding on horseback; he sees, in the distance in the forest, there\u2019s some sort of flickering or shiny object, but I took that out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The individual changes to \u201cHope\u201d are not enormous. The CGI work wasn\u2019t overhauled and polished, as some had hoped. And removing four-plus minutes from a 160-minute Cannes cut isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Like many at Cannes, I loved the film\u2019s first third but found the rest disappointing. The revised \u201cHope,\u201d however, played from beginning to end like one of the best action films I\u2019ve 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\u2019s harder to quantify \u2014 but if it\u2019s a good movie, does it really matter?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Na Hong-jin spent nearly a decade on \u201cHope\u201d \u2014 a massive sci-fi\/horror action movie that\u2019s reportedly the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[11519,18,117,597,42867,20477,19,17,327,214129],"class_list":["post-602752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-filmmaker-toolkit-podcast","tag-hope","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-na-hong-jin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116977444001102072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}