Zo In-sung in a poster for movie “Hope” / Courtesy of Plus M Entertainment

Director Na Hong-jin's new sci-fi film "Hope" is igniting massive debates online and offline, drawing sharply divided reactions from both critics and moviegoers since its July 15 release.

Paradoxically, the polarizing reception has fueled widespread public curiosity, which pushed the movie past the 2 million viewer mark on Sunday, just five days after its premiere.

The film tracks the chaos that unfolds when a mysterious monster suddenly invades Hopo Port, a fictional coastal village located near the Demilitarized Zone.

The local police station chief (Hwang Jung-min) and village people, including Seong-gi (Zo In-sung), scramble to deal with extraterrestrial entities while residents form a defense group against them.

Supporters praise the film as a groundbreaking masterpiece, highlighting its intense action sequences, grand scale and rebellious narrative structure that breaks away from traditional Korean cinema.

Hwang Jung-min in a poster for movie “Hope” / Courtesy of Plus M Entertainment

Prominent movie critic Lee Dong-jin gave the film four out of five stars, praising its raw energy and cinematic ambition.

"It is a bold race through a bizarre mess where the entire movie feels like a massive crescendo," Lee wrote Sunday.

Conversely, some critics strongly attack the production for its disjointed plot, inconsistent internal logic and unconvincing computer-generated imagery. They point out that the movie offers no explanation for where the aliens came from, why they are here or why a quiet fishing village is suddenly full of heavy weapons.

Na addressed the complaints on the film's perceived narrative gaps during a recent discussion with filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, explaining that the lack of explanations was a deliberate creative choice.

"I chose to give up the flesh of the narrative in order to gain the bones of cinematic details," Na said.

Web users on various online communities and movie review platforms have shared deeply conflicting reviews about their viewing experiences.

Some audiences expressed frustration with the loose writing and confusing conclusion, with one viewer writing that they left the theater with nothing but question marks because the story and acting felt entirely secondary to the chaotic action. Other negative reviews slammed the project as an uncomfortable mix between an art film and a sci-fi blockbuster, while specifically questioning who wrote the dialogue.

The film has also sparked discussion over its dialogue and performance style, particularly the unique speech delivery of actor Jung Ho-yeon, who plays a young police officer named Seong-ae. Na addressed these reactions by noting that Jung followed the script as written.

"Jung delivered her lines exactly as written, with a unique tone that was intentionally meant to sound neither conversational nor like reading from a text," Na said. "It was an artistic choice to represent a purely good character."

Jung Ho-yeon in a poster for movie “Hope” / Courtesy of Plus M Entertainment

Audiences are further divided over the frequent use of dark humor and the strong curse word “ssibal.” Some viewers complained about the repetitive use of the word, which the characters reportedly uttered around 140 times in the film.

Na revealed that the swearing was even more prominent before being scaled back during post-production.

"When I checked the initial footage, the word appeared about twice as much as what was actually in the script," Na said. "We managed to remove about 200 instances of the curse word during the editing process, but this amount still remained in the final version."

It remains to be seen whether the fierce debate will help the high-budget blockbuster sustain its box office momentum and surpass its projected break-even point of 7 million viewers. Nevertheless, "Hope" is on course to become the most talked-about movie in the box office here for the second half of the year.