7-Minute Roar: Why Na Hong-jin Hope Cannes standing ovation Is the Talk of the Riviera
A decade after haunting the world with The Wailing (2016), master of suspense Na Hong-jin has officially returned to the silver screen—and he brought extraterrestrial neighbors with him. On Sunday night, the highly anticipated sci-fi thriller HOPE made its world premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, triggering a thunderous Na Hong-jin Hope Cannes standing ovation that lasted for seven straight minutes.
Despite a late-night 9:30 p.m. screening and a meaty 160-minute runtime, the 2,300-seat Grand Lumière Theater remained packed to the brim. When the lights came up, the crowd broke into a synchronized roar, cementing Na’s latest masterpiece as this year’s ultimate festival breakout.
Aliens in the DMZ: A “Rural Sci-Fi” Invention
While Cannes competition lineups are historically dominated by slow-burning auteur dramas, HOPE shattered the mold by dropping an intense, big-budget alien invasion right into a 1980s Korean fishing village near the DMZ.
The story kicks off in Hopo Port, where cattle and residents start dying under bizarre, gruesome circumstances. Police Chief Bum-seok (played by the legendary Hwang Jung-min) and a group of local youths led by Sung-ki (played by heartthrob Zo In-sung) embark on a breathless, bloody chase.
When the threat finally reveals itself, audiences were treated to massive, superhuman creatures described as a hybrid between Attack on Titan‘s giants and Avatar‘s Na’vi. “If Bong Joon-ho invented the rural thriller with Memories of Murder,” noted Jung Han-seok, director of the Busan International Film Festival, “director Na Hong-jin has just invented rural science fiction.”
Hollywood Stars Speak Alien, But Netizens are Split on CGI
The film boasts an insanely star-studded global cast, including Hollywood power couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, alongside Taylor Russell and Squid Game breakout Jung Ho-yeon. Fun twist: Fassbender and Vikander perform entirely via motion-capture and speak an alien language, never showing their actual faces onscreen.
However, the international reception wasn’t without its critics. While the epic Na Hong-jin Hope Cannes standing ovation proved the theater’s immense love, U.S. outlet IndieWire threw some shade at the CGI, suggesting the monster was “scarier when unseen” and criticizing the reveal.
On the flip side, Variety praised the clever casting choice, noting that turning Hollywood A-listers into expressionless CGI aliens was a “sly inversion” of how Hollywood historically treats Asian actors in western blockbusters.
Haute Couture and Black Tie Laughs
Known for suffocating tension and grim violence (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea), Na surprised Cannes by weaving his signature black comedy into the chaos.
The loudest laugh of the night belonged to veteran actor Lym Hyeon-sik. In a scene that immediately went viral among festival-goers, his elderly character encounters a terrifying alien in the woods while trying to find a private spot to relieve himself, leading to a long, hilarious monologue about stopping diarrhea. According to Variety, the elite crowd clad in black tie and haute couture were “cackling with laughter” inside the sacred “temple of Cinema.”
The Next ‘Parasite’?
The hype surrounding the Na Hong-jin Hope Cannes standing ovation has already translated into massive commercial success. Neon—the powerhouse distributor that propelled Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019) to Oscar glory—has snapped up the distribution rights for North America, the UK, and Australia. Meanwhile, Mubi secured the rights for Europe and South America.
With Cannes jury chief Park Chan-wook leading the evaluation this year, all eyes are on the closing ceremony on May 23 to see if HOPE can walk away with the coveted Palme d’Or.
