CBEB’s

There’s been some really good movies coming out of South Korea over the past few years. From intelligent thrillers (Joint Security Area, Memories of Murder) to whacked-out conspiratorial sci-fi movies (Save the Green Planet), Koreans are exporting movies replete with an adventurous spirit rarely seen in the unimaginative pabulum coming out of Hollywood these days.

South Korea’s contribution to the Monster Movie genre is Joon-ho Bong’s 2006 film, The Host.

In 2000, an American civilian employed by the US military dumped over 20 gallons of formaldehyde down a sink, a move that led to the chemical being released into the Han River. The Korean government tried to put the culprit in prison, but the United States claimed jurisdiction, leading to a lot of protests outside embassies and military installations throughout Korea.

Just as the atom bomb inspired Japan’s classic Godzilla franchise, this incident serves as the impetus behind The Host, so fair warning: if you’re looking for some gung-ho “America, fuck yeah!” jingoism, maybe you should watch Red Dawn instead.

The Host isn’t your typical monster movie. In spite of the obvious Godzilla comparison, the movie has more in common with Jaws and Tremors. Furthermore, unlike most films in the genre that spend the first two acts teasing the audience before revealing the monster in all its glory, The Host reveals its creature in Act One, spending the remainder of the film dealing with the aftermath of the destruction caused by the creature.

In addition to the monster, The Host follows the exploits of the Park family; patriarch Hie-bong (Hie-bong Byeon) and his slacker son Gang-Du (Korean mega-star Kang-Ho Song) operate a concession stand on the banks of the river Han, while Gang-Du’s daughter Hyun-seo (Ah-sung Ko) attends a nearby middle school. Hyun-seo is so embarrassed by her father that she gets her unemployed, drunken uncle Nam-il (Hae-il Park) to visit her class for career day. After school, she and her grandfather watch her aunt Nam-Joo (Du-na Bae) compete in a televised archery competition.

The otherwise tranquil day is interrupted when tourists relaxing on the banks of Han River notice something strange dangling beneath the Wonhyo Bridge. Far too many horror movies rely on People Doing Stupid Things as a plot device, but The Host uses stupid behavior to great effect. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the creature’s introduction is dependent upon People Doing Stupid Things, but it’s done in a manner that makes perfect sense, much like the way people will slow down to see the aftermath of an auto accident.

I can has cheezburger?

When young Hyun-seo gets swallowed up by the monster, the Park family gathers to grieve their loss at a makeshift vigil/shelter set up by the authorities. Hyun-seo’s apparent death hits the family hard, as she represented the family’s future; everyone had hoped that she would be the one who succeeded. While many movies aim for tragedy and wind up with unintentional comedy (and vice versa), the memorial scene in The Host tries to be simultaneously tragic and funny… and succeeds.

Therein lies the rub with The Host. Fans of traditional monster flicks might be bothered by The Host’s disregard for the genre’s constraints, but those of you who are tired of the Same Old Thing will be pleasantly surprised. It’s funny, sad, playful and serious, often all at once.

Once the Korean authorities and the US Center for Disease Control get involved, the surviving members of the Park clan must follow Gang-Du to quarantine. But when Hyun-seo finally manages to get a signal on that shitty cell phone dad bought her, the Parks become Seoul’s Most Wanted and must contend with the police, the military, secretive medical organizations, corrupt contractors, greedy black marketeers, and treacherous friends.

The acting is great across the board, but the standout for me was young Ah-sung Ko. She had to play entire scenes on her own, and her acting was crucial in selling the monster to the audience.

Something slimy this way comes.

The monster effects are spotty in some areas, but the filmmakers made a good decision by introducing the creature in the first act. Its initial rampage is both convincing and impressive. By giving us sympathetic characters with a tangible mission instead of a bunch of self-absorbed idiots wandering aimlessly through darkened corridors, the viewer actually invests in the movie by rooting for the protagonists instead of hoping to see them devoured by the monster.

All in all, The Host is great, mindless fun if you just want to watch a monster movie, but there’s plenty of subtext for those of you who want a little more. Repeated viewings reveal inside jokes, too. Kang-Ho Song and Hie-bong Byeon were in Bong’s Memories of Murder, and there’s a scene in The Host featuring a cameo by another actor from Memories; if you’ve seen both films, the casting makes more sense.

Although the DVD comes with an English dub, I’d recommend watching it in Korean. There’s a major scene that operates under the assumption that none of the characters speak English, so it plays out a lot differently in English.

I haven’t seen Cloverfield, but I’ve heard it compared to The Host. I’ll just say that if you liked Jaws, Tremors, and the old Godzilla movies, chances are, you’ll get a big kick out of The Host.

Here’s a 30-second clip of the creature’s riverside rampage to give you an idea about the SFX. The view from the train really captures the “Holy shit!!!ELEVEN!” spirit of the first act.

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