Na Hong-jin makes violent thrillers and horror films in which ordinary people struggle to cope, sometimes comically, with danger. We rate his ability to keep a chase tense and unpredictable, though he can keep it going too long.
Fi1m perspective
In Hope (2026), members of a rural community face alien creatures with courage and a capacity to get things wrong. Na Hong-jin finds comedy in that combination, and it makes his action harder to predict. We laughed at people making a mess of their attempts to survive, because their bravery did not suddenly make them competent. He allows them to be foolish without making their efforts worthless. The result is a good creature feature whose chases are worth some patience with its excesses.
His feature debut, The Chaser (2008), established him in thrillers, and The Yellow Sea (2010) followed. The Wailing (2016) brought horror, thriller and comedy together, with sustained tension among its strengths. After a decade between features, Hope takes him into science-fiction action. The change of genre has not removed his interest in ordinary people confronting threats they cannot readily understand. Nor has it cured his appetite for long films packed with incident.
His recurring collaborators include cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo and actor Hwang Jung-min, each across two films. Na's attention to atmosphere and action choreography is central to his work; in Hope, the staging of the pursuits is more convincing than the creatures themselves. The humour helps those sequences because a mistake can change how an encounter plays out. We want these people to manage, and their capacity to fail makes the action more involving than a succession of assured feats would have been.
The reservation is length. Hope runs for 157 minutes, and the pursuit goes on longer than the story can comfortably sustain. Keeping an individual chase lively does not settle the question of how many chases a film needs. We recommend it to those who enjoy this kind of action, though we would welcome a firmer cut. Allow a long evening, and a little goodwill towards the creatures.
Biography
Na Hong-jin is a South Korean film director, screenwriter and producer. Born on 20 July 1974 in Seoul, he studied at Korea National University of Arts after earlier training in industrial arts. He began with short films before making his feature debut.
His first feature, The Chaser (2008), was followed by The Yellow Sea (2010), which screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The Wailing (2016) earned him the Best Director award at the 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards.
Na directed, wrote and produced Hope (2026), which premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
