Hope, South Korean director Na Hong-jin’s first foray into big-budget science fiction, is still very much a Na film. The hapless main characters, the thrilling, chillingly brutal violence, the darkly absurd comedy balancing out the stretches of cynical bleakness — these trademark elements of his style can all be found in his latest outing.
Yet it’s also a meaningful departure from the sorts of stories he’s known for. The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010) possess a charged, procedural intensity, their narrative stakes concentrated on the protagonists’ needs, desires, and fears. With The Wailing (2016), delving into supernatural horror enabled a thematic evolution from this more terrestrial focus toward something more spiritual and mystically expansive. Now Na has upped the ante, aiming to deconstruct humanity’s worst character quirks from an intergalactic point of view while putting his spin on the blockbuster-style epic.
Ahead of the film’s American release, I spoke with Na about some of his filmography’s thematic aspects, his sources of inspiration, and his hopes for his biggest movie to date.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Travis DeShong: You’ve spoken before about returning to the film True Romance when you’re searching for an approach to a new project. What about that movie makes it such a lasting creative touchstone for you?
Na Hong-jin: When I was younger, I had a VHS tape of True Romance. I’ve probably watched it hundreds of times. The shots in True Romance are really incredible. Whether it comes to the sequencing, the structure, the scenes, all of those aspects were ingrained in me and became a big influence. Watching it before a filmmaking process really motivates me to work harder and reminds me what a good film is.
TD: What was it about the idea of the extraterrestrial that unlocked this story for you? Why did an alien invasion feel like the right way into the world?
NH: After The Wailing, I really was thinking about how to convey a perspective of society that was new, and I really didn’t want to continue going into the supernatural aspect. However, that kind of steered me into looking at society from an astronomical perspective. So, it started there, and, you know, I got to aliens. A story with aliens, I thought, would bring a certainty and a contrast that I wanted to explore within the narrative itself.
TD: Even in your darkest of films, humor often plays an important role. What do you think about the function of humor in your work, and did that role change at all in this film?
NH: I would say that my mom has actually influenced me a lot when it comes to that because she’s someone who, in various serious situations, will crack jokes. I think I inherited that from her, and sometimes it has gotten me in trouble. So, I was able to do that freely in this movie, cracking jokes in moments of tension.
TD: Your films often blend thriller, drama, comedy, which we just talked about, and other modes within the same story. Does mixing genres allow you to access a wider emotional range in an audience? Is there something else you’re actively pursuing when you blend genres together?
NH: I think I could definitely say that a theater is a space where we turn the lights off, the doors are closed, and we really can communicate directly through the medium of film. So the emotion of the audience is something that I’m anticipating in the scriptwriting and filmmaking process, and it’s something that, through timing, as we push forward toward the conclusion of the film, that we’re really considering — the emotional reaction of the audience in the theater.
TD: It strikes me that, in one form or another, all of your features contain this tragic core. Is that a fair reading of your work? And if it is, what keeps drawing you back to that narrative mode?
NH: When I was a kid, I really didn’t listen and I also didn’t read. However, there is a book, The Dog of Flanders, that really left a lasting impression on me. I could almost say that my life can be separated into before and after I read the book. That’s how much it shocked me. I was an elementary school student at the time, and I cried so much reading that book because all the characters in the book die by the end, and it was a tragedy that really made me think. And I think that is what tragedy does: it allows us to think. My films are filled with violence and a sense of negativity and darkness. However, the ultimate goal for showing that in the films themselves is to shine a light on some deeper good.
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