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Korean cinema is often highly regarded by critics and film buffs alike, as South Korean filmmakers produce horror films and action-thrillers with more verve and creativity than their Hollywood counterparts. 2006's The Host is South Korea's attempt at an epic monster movie in the vein of Godzilla and King Kong. Directed and co-written by the Oscar-winning Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder), The Host does not disappoint, with the Koreans successfully nailing yet another genre. Despite a comparatively paltry $11 million production budget, this is a superlative monster movie, and its production values are only a few notches below a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. Consistently thrilling and involving, The Host benefits from competent storytelling, engaging character drama, strong creature effects and top-flight filmmaking from top to bottom. It succeeds as a straight-up monster movie due to the many exhilarating and edge-of-your-seat sequences involving the creature, yet the film also works as a familial drama, examining the breakdown of a dysfunctional family in a time of great crisis.
A dim-witted family man, Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) runs a concession stand along the Han River with his father and young daughter. A nearby U.S. military base dumping toxic chemicals into the river over several years results in the creation of a ferocious amphibious creature that suddenly emerges from the Han River to begin a vicious rampage. After slaughtering multiple people, the beast flees and returns to its lair carrying Gang-du's daughter, Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung), for future consumption. Gang-du naturally assumes the worst, and his family comes to his aid to grieve Hyun-seo's presumed death. However, word surfaces that Gang-du's daughter is, in fact, alive in captivity and being held somewhere in the concrete storm drains feeding into the Han River. Though the authorities quarantine Gang-du due to an apparent virus threat, he escapes and works with his family to bring the girl back home safely.
The Host does ask you to briefly suspend your disbelief to accept the plot. After the creature rises, we watch as it ruthlessly slaughters several people, devouring some and leaving others to die of blood loss, before snatching young Hyun-seo and taking her back to its lair alive. One imagines that she should have drowned due to the beast's constant submersion under the water, or at least received whiplash as a result of being carried around like a ragdoll. Luckily, beyond this hard-to-swallow contrivance, The Host is a top-notch flick mixing monster movie theatrics with moments of black humour, outright slapstick and biting satire. However, the humour is not a dumb distraction, as it feels like an organic extension of the characters' personalities. When Gang-du's family sprawls all over the floor, writhing around in clumsy hysteria over Hyun-seo's apparent death, it is simultaneously poignant and hilarious. Joon-ho competently navigates the challenging tonal changes, which is also a testament to the excellent performances from a capable cast.
To Joon-ho's credit, he wastes little time before diving into the tour de force set piece involving the monster's first attack along the Han River. Especially with an R rating in place that allows for shocking bloodletting, it's an astounding sequence, and it is so unnerving and riveting due to how plausible it seems. Indeed, Joon-ho dials down the theatrics to create a scarily brutal attack guaranteed to send chills down your spine. Momentum unfortunately slows down following this initial rampage, and the film runs too long at almost two hours, but there are far more strong moments than weak scenes. The attack scenes throughout the picture are absolutely killer, with cinematographer Kim Hyung-koo using exceptionally crisp and steady framing to capture the mayhem, allowing for maximum visibility to let us properly marvel at the abilities of this beast. The climax, in particular, is a stunner - a competently orchestrated showdown that is astonishing and emotionally affecting in equal measure. The creature design by Weta Workshop is commendable, and the special effects by American production house The Orphanage (The Day After Tomorrow, Superman Returns) are quite good, even if the beast is not always entirely convincing. Sometimes, the CGI looks too obvious, but Joon-ho's direction is strong enough to belie such shortcomings.
Song Kang-ho (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) is hugely effective as the bumbling Gang-du. He's a terrific comedic presence, but his love for his daughter always shines through. Moreover, the actor impeccably sells the character's transformation from a slacker father to a mature parent. It's refreshing for The Host to feature a dysfunctional family battling the beast rather than a selection of soldiers or scientists. Speaking of which, The Host is an unorthodox creature feature that outright rejects Western mentalities: Joon-ho shows the monster in full view early into the film, the characters take precedence over action, no characters are safe, and the downbeat ending is unexpected. As a result, the film is a breath of fresh air within a genre that has grown stale of late.
There are political and satirical undertones throughout The Host, as Joon-ho drew inspiration for the movie from a widely-reported scandal involving the dumping of formaldehyde down drains running into the Han River. In the film, American soldiers combat the creature using the chemist agent known as "Agent Yellow," an obvious reference to the infamous Agent Orange from the Vietnam War. Indeed, Joon-ho openly admits that this movie is a metaphor and a political commentary about the United States. The Host is not perfect due to its occasionally rickety digital effects and a few patches of wobbly pacing, but it perpetually retains a quirky charm. It contains several standout action sequences, yet the film also follows the time-honoured Spielbergian formula of a dysfunctional family that must come together in an hour of crisis. If you like monster movies, seek out The Host as soon as possible.
7.7/10
