Hope

Tomorrow Theater is screening Hope on Friday, October 23, a new South Korean sci-fi epic from director Na Hong-jin. It's presented by PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow, and it runs in the original Korean with English subtitles. The movie is rated R and clocks in at 157 minutes—two hours and 36 minutes—so it's a full evening's commitment.

Set in the remote coastal village of Hope Harbor, the story follows police chief Bum-seok, a man prone to panic, and officer Sung-ae as they investigate a mysterious creature wreaking havoc on the community. As they dig in, they discover that all is not as it seems and that perceptions can be misleading. The film is described as a sprawling and thunderously entertaining genre mash-up in which ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions. If you're into sci-fi that starts small and expands into something much larger, this fits the bill.

Na Hong-jin is the name behind the camera, and Hope is his 2026 release. It's a Korean-language production, so it'll be subtitled throughout. Between the creature feature setup and the cosmic scale it eventually reaches, it sounds like the kind of thing that works best on a big screen rather than at home.

The screening is at Tomorrow Theater, 3530 SE Division Street in Southeast Portland. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the movie starts at 7 PM. Tickets are $15.