When I’m looking forward to a movie I usually avoid the trailers, but going into Hope and Colony I thought I had a good idea of what I was getting from the directors of two of my favorite horror films in the last decade.
What I didn’t expect to get was some of the best female action heroes I’ve seen in a long time.
Directed by Na Hong-jin, his first film since his horror classic The Wailing, Hope is an epic action sci-fi western centered on a small revenant of cops and hunters defending their old fishing village as it is massacred by a massive, mysterious creature.
We hear Officer Yim, played by Jung Ho-yeon, throughout the first act of the film over radio, but she doesn’t grace the screen until near the end of it with an entrance of epic proportions. This woman, who sounded fearful in her brief updates with police chief Bum-seok, peels onto the scene in a worse-for-wear cop car armed to the gills with weapons and ammo. She’s there to kill the monster and rescue Bum-seok (in that order).
After hundreds of bullets and several seemingly failed attempts with a grenade launcher, she finally nails the creature, blowing off one of its legs and remains in pursuit until the monster is fatefully run over by a truck on the highway. Yim later steps in as an unflinching field nurse for the wounded and, in one of many great comedic moments, gets a moment of femininity as she fangirls over the uncanny abilities of hunter Sung-ki in the group. As well-rounded a hero you could ask for.
Next, we’re introduced to a woman played by Hwang Seok-jeong who appears to be a public health director, brought in to examine the dead monster. Before we get a glimpse of her, we see her surgical instruments splayed out like an arsenal of her own. She jams some cotton in her nose to block the smell and gets to work. Her no-nonsense attitude paired with her biological aptitude is a treat to witness as she works from smaller to larger tools to make her incisions, finally landing on a chainsaw. While the men in the room fight not to get sick during this alien autopsy, she asks them to look closely—this isn’t a species she’s seen before.
There’s one more woman with the blood of an action hero pumping through her veins: an uncredited elderly member of the local militia. In the early chase sequence, Bum-seok is scooped up by a pickup truck. The aging and competent soldiers in the back quickly point out his ineptitude and cowardice, and the woman scolds him while she reloads the shooters in the front. Truly a gem.
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan), Colony is an action-horror film about a bioterrorist attack and the civilians attempting to survive at the outbreak’s quarantined epicenter, a city sky-rise building.
Professor Se-jeong, played by Jun Ji-hyun, is practically dragged to a conference in the building by her ex-husband who is desperate for her to find a job and friends before he moves away and she becomes a total recluse. She is antisocial, her humor if you can call it that is dry, and she is generally unimpressed. But when the building comes under attack, she may be the only one equipped to evade the infected and steps up to lead the group.
Much later in the film, we discover that her husband’s new wife Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been) is also a biological researcher who is sent in to investigate the terrorist’s lab where the virus originated. Introduced as the likable and agreeable polar opposite to Se-jeong, Seol-hee is reintroduced as a serious player in the fight to stop the outbreak. When she makes it to the command center, she becomes the eyes and ears for Se-jeong who is still trapped inside. Together they become a powerhouse of determination, scientific expertise, and survival instincts.
These “final girls” of Colony have a complex relationship, which makes their hero’s journeys all the more compelling. What they lack in one-liners or physical ability, they make up in sheer willpower and competence.
You can catch both of these movies on the big screen right now and I highly recommend that you do!
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