Director Na Hong-jin's new film 'Hope' begins with a story of a community defending itself against an external invasion.
In the vicinity of Hopohang near the Demilitarized Zone, an unidentified entity appears, prompting the local station chief, Beom-seok (Hwang Jung-min), and the villagers to arm themselves. The audience, following the human perspective, fears the unknown and roots for human survival.
However, the film attempts to subvert this dynamic in its latter half. Were humans truly innocent victims against the invasion? Why did the being labeled as a monster come here, and what actions did humans take before understanding their circumstances? The film reveals the aliens' motives and losses, questioning the positions of humans and monsters.
Ultimately, 'Hope' does not aim for a simple good versus evil confrontation between humans and aliens. It explores the tragedy of beings that define others in their own language and destroy the hopes of others to protect their own.
▲ A Western that Aligns with Humanity
The basic genre structure of 'Hope' resembles that of a classic Western.
Hopohang is a border area removed from the center of civilization. Station chief Beom-seok occupies the role of sheriff, while the armed villagers become a vigilante group protecting their community from external threats.
In classic Westerns, the town represents order and civilization, while the beings that emerge from the wilderness are depicted as barbaric and chaotic threats to that civilization. The gun-toting hero eliminates the external enemy and restores peace to the town.
Initially, 'Hope' follows this formula. The alien appears with a massive body, incomprehensible sounds, and overwhelming power, making it natural for the audience to empathize with the humans. The act of shooting is perceived more as defense than aggression.
However, as the circumstances of the alien become clearer, the positions of settlers and invaders are reversed.
Humans are victims trying to protect their village, yet they mistakenly kill the alien child, perceiving it as a beast, and occupy its body as aggressors. To humans, the alien is an unexpected invader, but to the alien, humans are the monsters who killed a child and concealed the body.
In the latter half of the film, the appearance of the aliens reveals that they too have families, relationships, languages, and purposes. 'Hope' initially aligns the audience with humans, then questions whether that position was truly just.
▲ The Tiger: Humanity's First Misinterpretation
Beom-seok believes a tiger has appeared after seeing unidentified traces. This reflects how humans understand unknown entities. The most plausible explanation for those who see a dead cow, large tracks, and unfamiliar cries is a tiger.
Humans do not know the true name of the aliens, but they quickly find reasons to kill them. Believing themselves to be civilized, they are not much different from animals driven by fear and aggression when faced with a more overwhelming presence.
For a significant portion of the film, the alien's language is not translated. The audience hears their sounds alongside the humans but does not understand their meaning. The incomprehensible speech sounds more like cries or roars than language. The aliens' actions also appear as instinctual violence rather than reasoned choices.
They did have a language; the audience simply was not provided with subtitles.
Humans convert their inability to understand into a judgment of meaninglessness. If they cannot comprehend the speech, they consider the beings incapable of communication, and if they believe communication is impossible, they classify them as threats to be eliminated.
The moment the alien's language is translated, the meanings of earlier scenes change. What the audience heard as monstrous noise contained loss, relationships, faith, and hope.
'Hope' confines the audience within human ignorance, prompting reflection on how easily they treated the other as a meaningless entity simply due to a lack of understanding.
▲ The Alien's Tears Turn the Face of the Monster
The turning point for Beom-seok's perception is the alien's tears.
Upon witnessing what he thought was a monster crying, the alien transforms from a creature attacking humans into a being mourning a loss.
Tears transcend the differences in appearance, language, and civilization between humans and aliens.
A crying being has lost something. If something is lost, it also has relationships, memories, and a future it wishes to protect. Acknowledging that the monster also possesses sorrow complicates the label of 'monster' that humans have assigned.
Beom-seok does not fully understand the alien. However, for the first time, he senses the possibility that he misjudged the other. In this moment, 'Hope' shifts its question: Did he too quickly label that being as a monster?
▲ The Carpenter Fails to Recognize the Child from Heaven
The themes of death and resurrection in the latter half of the film evoke Christian imagery, centered around the carpenter Yang-bae (Eum Moon-seok).
In Christian culture, carpenters evoke images of Joseph and Jesus. Joseph protected the child born of divine will, while Jesus was known as the carpenter's son.
'Hope' flips this familiar image. The carpenter in the film does not protect the child from heaven. Instead, he kills the unfamiliar being, mistaking it for a beast, and conceals its body in his freezer.
Yang-bae's freezer becomes a 'twisted stable' where the child from heaven descends into the human world and a tomb where the dead await resurrection.
In the narrative of Jesus' birth, carpenter Joseph accepts the unfamiliar child, but the carpenter in 'Hope' defines the child he does not understand as a beast and eliminates it. The protector's role is inverted into that of an aggressor.
The film does not leave these biblical images to mere implication. The alien Zor (Alicia Vikander) directly recites Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
This resonates with the hope of the aliens, who believe in a resurrection that has not yet appeared. While humans seek to preserve the visible present, the aliens refuse to abandon their hope for an unseen return.
▲ The Moment Hope Becomes Violence
The film's deepest conflict arises from the clash of beings desiring different futures.
Humans aim to protect their village, families, and lives. They hope to return to their previous lives after the aliens disappear. Their hope lies in preserving the visible present.
The aliens focus on the already deceased. They do not abandon the possibility of the lost returning or the restoration of broken relationships and order.
For humans to protect their village, they must eliminate the aliens. For the aliens to reclaim their lost child and protect their hope, they must attack humans. The moment one side's hope is realized, the other side's future collapses.
Here, 'Hope' becomes a paradox rather than a positive slogan.
Hope drives existence and life. However, when one believes their hope to be the absolute good, the other becomes an obstacle to that future. The hope of others is seen not as a future to understand but as a threat to eliminate.
▲ 'Hope' as a Theological Western
'Hope' positions the audience alongside the human community through the format of a classic Western. It then reverses the positions of invader and victim, shaking the foundation of humanity's belief in its own civilization.
The tiger represents humanity's first misinterpretation of the unknown. The untranslated alien language illustrates how easily humans treat the incomprehensible other as a meaningless entity. The alien's tears reveal the relationships and losses of what was perceived as a monster.
In this context, 'Hope' emerges as a theological Western that raises questions of death and resurrection atop the genre's pitfalls.
Ultimately, the film does not ask who is more right. It questions what we erase from the face of the other when we define them in our own language and strive to protect only our own hope.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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