South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong, the nation’s champion of satire & absurdist humour, has delivered their biggest ever hit with The Host. Hailed by critics as an instant classic – a monster movie described as a “multilayed horror comedy drama”.
A US military idiot dumps expired toxic waste into the Han River – giving birth to a massive, virus infecting creature. One pleasant afternoon on the river bank, the creature surfaces and an orgy of death and destruction ensues. During the attack a young girl - Hyun-Seo - is swooped up by the monster. The girl’s highly dysfunctional family come together to try and retrieve Hyun-Seo when the authorities refuse to help.
I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
'The Host' might be a great monster movie, possibly more relevant and interesting that Peter Jackson's 'King Kong', but that didn't stop my eyelids from drooping. It's funny in patches, and the staging of the action scenes is wonderfully inventive, but it's also too long and less suspenseful than it imagines itself to be.
This blockbuster hit from South Korea tells the story of a very ordinary family who run a foodstall on the banks of the dirty Han River in Seoul . One day a crowd gathers to watch an unusual creature unfurl from the underside of a nearby bridge (It's basically a giant mud-skipper with tentacles). The creature then proceeds to attack the nearby humans and kidnap the family's daughter. The family (which include an alcoholic uncle and an archery champion aunt) join together to rescue the girl from the monster's lair in the sewers.
The highlight of the film is the introduction of the monster as it leaps onto the banks of the river and runs riot. Wow. Humans scatter in all directions in true monster-movie fashion. Interestingly, there are no pompous 'look-at-me' shots of the monster and it often runs through the back of shot while the camera focuses on a person in the foreground. It's as if the cameraman was struggling to keep the creature in shot. There are no underwater shots either, and this all adds up to a sense of realism – which is pretty helpful considering the computer effects are a bit shoddy.
The film is a bit anti-American, actually. The opening scenes show a smarmy American military officer ordering his Korean minion to dump old formaldehyde down the sink. This of course runs into the Han River and creates the monster which emerges a few years later. The Americans then pretend that the monster carries a virus (It's a 'host') and so they turn the area into a quarantined zone. The heroic Park family disobeys the rules and sneaks into the danger zone. So a sub-theme of 'The Host' is of the simple South Korean man railing against Western interference.
But the main theme is the importance of a bond, not just among the family but amongst the citizens. It's about the solidarity of working-class Seoul. I particularly liked the lead character, the father, played by Kang-ho Song. His pudgy face and funny expressions lend him a likable personality. You actually want him to find his daughter.
But even despite the film's unpredictable ending, the story meanders a bit too much and any suspense is lost. And by the time the film ends, you leave feeling glad that it's all over because it was starting to get a bit dull, and you didn't even care when some characters died. And you thought the computer effects were lack-luster. And you felt underwhelmed because the film didn't live up to the media hype. It's got the eerie feel of a comic nightmare, but it's still a bit boring.
[By Andrew Hedley]
This film is a masterpiece. Its probably on of the best monster movies ever made. Certainly its one of the top three giant monster movies. Its not a straight horror film. Its much more than that, its a family drama, a hysterical comedy, a political thriller and yes a scary scary movie. The tension is incredible at times simply because director Joon-ho Bong, of the excellent Memories of Murder, has crafted a film where anything can happen at any time. You are never safe, with the monster showing up often when you least expect it, often after a belly laugh that catches in your throat. The film also manages to wring laughs out of incredibly tense situations as things go wrong and people make human mistakes and choices. Wow.
Love the way the Koreans can laugh at themselves for all the things they take so seriously in day to day life.
A couple of lower-grade effects shots aside, the film looks wonderful - particularly the initial daylight catastrope - while the signature Korean genre-twisting will keep everyone on their toes. The cast sell their characters' cruel and extraordinary tale with verve, and the monster - brought to weighty and menacing life by the effects teams behind Lord Of The Rings and Babe - is a memorably deadly addition to the creature hall of fame...
You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll jump, you’ll ask Hollywood for your money back. Seek it out...
Joon-Ho's epic is a masterpiece of monster cinema that's intelligent, innovative, and reaches down to the basic core of family unity to propel its story beyond mere conventions of science fiction...
A great piece of filmmaking and a legitimate science-fiction/horror classic...
The film begins with a truly inspired bit of filmmaking... A pleasant summer afternoon on the banks of the river turns into an orgy of death and destruction when the creature surfaces and comes ashore. This is one of the strongest widespread panic segments ever witnessed in a horror film. The terror of the day-trippers by the river and the ensuing pandemonium is set to Lee Byeong-Wu's excellent pounding score. And there's no skimping on the monster: Bong doesn't try to create an air of mystery -- or explain its existence... He just gets to it...
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Tuesday, 1st May 2007.
Release date: May 1st 2007.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
