[Dispatch=Reporter Jung Tae-yoon] Runtime: 156 minutes. Admission: 14,000 won. 89.7 won per minute.

Is it worth investing 156 minutes for roughly 90 won per minute? At least for 2 hours and 36 minutes of tension, 14,000 won is not wasted.

The 156 minutes of 'Hope' are designed to hold the viewer's gaze. What this film is selling is not a story, but an experience. A viewing experience that justifies the ticket price, transcending its cost.

Director Na Hong-jin first conceived of 'Hope' in 2018. A time when OTT and COVID were keeping audiences at home. When the domestic film market was slowly sinking.

Na Hong-jin chose expansion over retreat. A calculation to revive a market dying at home by saving it abroad. And he broadened the genre. Space, aliens, blockbuster action.

The film's plot is simple. A fighting bull lies dead in the middle of a village. Who killed it? Or rather, what killed it? Beom-seok (played by Hwang Jung-min), chief of the 'Hopohang' branch office, pursues an unidentified entity that has laid waste to the village.

The boldest point comes in the first 50 minutes. The moment Beom-seok alone pursues the unidentified entity. Na Hong-jin made Beom-seok, or rather the audience, wander. By not showing the creature but only showing the village, he generated tension.

After the 'unseen' 50 minutes, the 'seen' 106 minutes unfold. The density of that action is territory Korean cinema has never visited. Guns, axes, and swords collide, police cars, trucks, and horses crash within a single frame.

Action is a tool of continuation, not resolution. Even after gunfire ends, the situation is not resolved. More collisions, gunfire, collisions, gunfire. Every opportunity to catch breath is eliminated. Pursuing, fleeing, and rampaging across fields and villages, forests and roads.

This chase sequence has no reference point. Seong-gi (played by Jo In-sung) rides a horse, supporting his body with one leg while running across asphalt. An electric bike, wire camera, and slider system capable of handling 200 km/h were deployed.

Director Na Hong-jin captured the frame alongside the horse, sometimes faster. Pushing the audience with a sense of speed beyond actual velocity. Yet he does not completely release the tension. Continuously tightening, occasionally loosening, then tightening again.

Alien warrior Mabeyo (played by Michael Fassbender) adds another layer to the suspense. Changing its form, it overwhelms humans with overwhelming speed. The audience experiences the fear that Beom-seok and Seong-gi felt.

Yet this is not a film that races forward at full speed. Na Hong-jin's distinctive black comedy opens the valve. Amidst death and violence, laughter erupts. Controlling the pace through the horse (馬) and speech (言), he carries 156 minutes without fatigue.

Na Hong-jin first presented the film at Cannes in May. Two months remained until release. He started again. He worked on sound, touched up CG, refined editing. It was a continuous series of work that never ends.

If one asks whether 'Hope' is a perfect film, Na Hong-jin would answer, "It is not." But if one asks whether 'Hope' is a necessary film, would he not say, "It is"? HOPE to prove that the experience of the cinema still matters.

He created a reason to go to the cinema in an age when people do not go to the cinema.

<Photo courtesy=Plus M, Posed Films>