Hope: Na Hong-jin's alien-invasion film opens in Malaysia on 10 September, with IMAX and 4DX previews this weekend

The most expensive film ever made in South Korea lands in Malaysia next Thursday, and the chains are not waiting for Thursday. Hope, Na Hong-jin's first film in ten years, is listed on this site at 68 cinemas with 403 sessions in the week to 10 September, and 177 of those sessions are on Saturday and Sunday, 5 and 6 September, five days before the 10 September date that GSC's and TGV's own pages give. Every one of the weekend sessions is in IMAX, 4DX or ScreenX, at 19 GSC and TGV cinemas.

An alien invasion, rated 18, 157 minutes

GSC's page gives the running time as 2 hours 37 minutes, the classification as 18, and the language as Korean with English, Malay and Chinese subtitles; TGV's page lists 155 minutes and the same 18. GSC names the cast as Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender. TGV's synopsis puts the story in the remote village of Hope Harbor, where police chief Bum-seok and officer Sung-ae are called out to a mysterious creature, and the trouble that follows grows, in its words, from ignorance into human conflict and then into something far larger.

Malay Mail, carrying an AFP report from Cannes on 19 May, describes what that something is: a gory, blood-splattered tale of alien invasion, with the married couple Fassbender and Vikander playing the extraterrestrials, their performances transformed by effects to the point that fans may not recognise them, while the recognisable lead roles go to Korean stars. Na told AFP: "It's the most expensive film in the history of Korean cinema", and put the budget at around 30 million euros, with backing from Plus M Entertainment. Screen Daily's figure, reported in July, is higher: around $46 million, or 70 billion won, which it calls reportedly the largest for a Korean film. Both agree on the record; they differ on the number.

The Cannes reviews, as Malay Mail summarised them, were broadly positive but not unanimous: Screen called it "a thunderously entertaining genre mash-up", while IndieWire faulted the effects and Variety found the 160-minute Cannes cut over long. The film competed for the Palme d'Or, one of 22 in competition, in a year the jury was chaired by Park Chan-wook. Na intends it as the first of a series, Malay Mail reports, and Screen Daily says a sequel is already written.

The biggest opening Korea has had this year

At home, the film did what the budget demanded. Screen Daily reported that it opened on Wednesday 15 July to 333,915 admissions and $2.5 million from 2,403 screens, 81.3 per cent of that day's box office, after reaching number one in pre-sales faster than any 2026 release, with more than 555,000 bookings. By the Sunday, Screen Daily's follow-up report put the weekend at $11.4 million from 1,504,019 admissions and the five-day total at $16 million from 2,129,726 admissions, the fastest any film had reached one million admissions (three days) and two million (five) in Korea this year. Screen Daily also reported in May that Plus M had sold the film to more than 200 territories after Cannes, recouping nearly half the budget in pre-sales alone. For scale, Screen Daily gives Na's earlier films as The Chaser at $22.9 million, The Yellow Sea at $11.8 million and The Wailing at $37.6 million and nearly seven million admissions.

The formats, and the previews

In Korea the film went out in Dolby Cinema, IMAX, ScreenX and 4DX, according to Screen Daily, and the Malaysian chains have programmed it the same way. This week's listings have 164 IMAX sessions, 50 in 4DX, 30 in Dolby Atmos halls, 17 in ScreenX and 15 in D-BOX motion seats, with the weekend previews concentrated at GSC 1 Utama, GSC Southkey Mall, GSC Paradigm Mall in Johor Bahru and GSC's Aurum halls at The Exchange TRX, and at TGV's IMAX cinemas. From Wednesday 9 September the count widens to all 68 cinemas, Paragon included.

Two things before booking. The 18 is an adults-only classification, so this is not the weekend outing for a family, and at 157 minutes an evening session ends close to midnight. The Hope page lists every cinema and session as the chains publish them, with the IMAX and 4DX sessions marked, and the showtimes page puts each cinema's Hope times side by side. The same Thursday brings Practical Magic 2 to TGV, listed at 130 minutes with a 13 classification; the Practical Magic 2 page has its sessions as they arrive.