Love & Anarchy Gala: Hope

Strange things are happening in the small Korean village of Hope Harbor: a beast is on the loose. At first, the villagers suspect a bear, but as the destruction mounts exponentially, police chief Bum-seok, young officer Sung-ae and a group of hunters are forced to conclude that they are dealing with something else entirely.

Hope is a film whose plot is best left undiscovered before seeing it. To get the most exhilarating cinematic experience possible, the best approach is to surrender to its gleeful battering of genre conventions with an open mind.

This unstoppable Korean sci-fi behemoth is a perfect fit for the Love & Anarchy Gala: the year’s most anarchic genre mash-up, hurtling forward with all its heart and its pulse racing. It takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride that keeps delivering exhilarating twists throughout its hefty, nearly three-hour runtime. Along for the ride are Hollywood stars Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.

Hope premiered in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, an unusual slot for a genre film, where it quickly became one of the festival’s major talking points.

Inari Ylinen