Na Hong-jin's 'Hope' teaser surfaces at Cannes

A Cannes teaser can be a tiny thing — 30 seconds, one mood, one image — but with Na Hong-jin’s *Hope*, that tiny thing lands like a flare. This is his first feature since *The Wailing* in 2016, and Cannes just put the first official clip online on May 10, two days before the 2026 festival opens and a week before the film’s May 17 Competition premiere. That matters because *Hope* has been half-rumor, half-legend for years. Now there is finally moving footage the public can actually look at. ### What surfaced, exactly? It wasn’t a leak. It was an official Cannes media-library post labeled “HOPE by NA Hong-Jin – Clip 1,” published on May 10. The festival also lists the 79th edition dates as May 12 to May 23, 2026, which places the clip squarely in the pre-premiere hype window rather than after any critical reaction. ### Why is that a bigger deal than a normal teaser? (festival-cannes.com) Because *Hope* has been unusually sealed off. Even in April, trade coverage was still calling the image campaign minimal and treating the movie as a long-gestating mystery. Na has spent years developing it, and this is his first time entering Cannes main competition after earlier festival slots for *The Chaser*, *The Yellow Sea*, and *The Wailing*. So the first official clip is less “marketing asset” and more “proof of life.” ### What kind of movie is *Hope*? Basically, it starts like one movie and threatens to become another. The setup centers on a remote harbor village near the Korean DMZ, where reports of a tiger set off panic before the situation escalates into something much stranger. Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux described it in April as a film that runs for more than two hours and keeps changing genre, which is exactly the kind of description that makes Cannes people lean in. (hollywoodreporter.com) ### What do we know from earlier footage? CinemaCon got a sneak look in April, and the description was not subtle. Jung Ho-yeon’s police officer moves through a town that looks ripped apart, teams are chased through the woods by creatures, and there’s even a shot of a ship descending through the clouds. So whatever the clip Cannes posted shows, the broader movie already sounds less like a prestige mystery and more like Na trying to smuggle full-blown creature-feature chaos into the Palme d’Or lineup. (hollywoodreporter.com) ### Who’s in this thing? The cast is one reason the movie has felt outsized from the start. Na pairs Korean stars Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Jung Ho-yeon with Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton. That mixed Korean-Hollywood lineup is new for him, and it makes *Hope* feel built for global crossover in a way his earlier films weren’t. (theplaylist.net) ### Why are Cannes watchers so keyed up? Because Na doesn’t come back often, and when he does, people expect something extreme. *The Wailing* turned him into one of the most watched genre directors working anywhere, and *Hope* is being framed as his most ambitious film yet — with reports of a budget north of $50 million and a 160-minute runtime. That is not a modest comeback swing. It’s the “I’ve been gone ten years, here’s the monster” version. (hollywoodreporter.com) ### Why does this matter for Korean cinema too? *Hope* is also carrying some national-symbolic weight. It’s the first Korean film in Cannes Competition since Park Chan-wook’s *Decision to Leave* in 2022, after a notably thin Cannes year for Korean features in 2025. So the teaser isn’t just feeding curiosity around one auteur — it’s also the first tangible look at Korea’s return to the festival’s top race. (youtube.com) ### Bottom line? The clip surfacing at Cannes doesn’t tell us yet whether *Hope* is great. But it does change the status of the movie from abstraction to object. After years of buildup, Na Hong-jin’s big Cannes gamble is finally visible — and it already looks like he’s aiming for something huge, weird, and very much not safe. (biz.chosun.com)