The Host is a 2006 Korean monster movie. It was directed by Bong Joon-ho, and it stars Song Kang-ho, Byeon Hee-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Doona, and Ko Ah-seong. The movie is a mix of horror, comedy, and drama.
The movie follows the Park family. Gang-du is a loser who works at a grocery shack along with his dad, Hee-bong. He lives with his daughter, Hyun-seo. He also has a sister named Nam-joo, who a professional archer, and a drunken brother named Nam-il. The grocery shack is located on the river bank of the Han River, which is a popular local spot. One day a giant amphibian monster attacks the people hanging out by the river. The monster is a mutant that was created by the pollution of the Han River. During the attack Gang-du tries to fight off the monster, but fails, and his daughter Hyun-seo is capture by the monster. To make things worse we find out that the Monster is the host of a virus, which means that the park family has to stay quarantined. On top of that the authorities believe that Hyun-seo is dead, although she manages to call Gang-du on his cell phone a few hours after the attack. So it’s up to the park family to break out of guaranty, and rescue Hyun-seo.
The strongest part of this movie is the direction. It is outright brilliant. The movie manages to keep its horror, comedy, and drama elements well balanced. Although the movie does have some really silly scenes, it doesn’t get in the way of the horror or the drama of the situation. All the actors fill their roles well, and the beautiful cinematography also helps to hide some of the slightly weak, by late 2010-early 2011 standards, CGI.
Monster movie purist might be turned off by the fact that the monster is not done by practical effects, but I think that it works better this way. This is not a Godzilla movie. There is nothing tongue-in-cheek about The Host monster. Yes the movie has comedy, but it’s never related to the Monster. When the monster appears on camera you are meant to fear it (especially late in the movie), so the knowledge that the monster is a guy in a rubber suite would have ruined that. Also, the movie uses the CGI to its full potential. The Host is a small (by giant movie monster standards), and fast creature that moves and acts like an animal, and it has a particular habit that has to be done with CGI. There is no way to make The Host monster look good with practical effect.
The biggest weak point of this movie is the writing. The plot of the movie is very contrived. There are some logic holes in the story, and some pretty hardcore plot conveniences. The movie is also pretty predictable. That’s not a big movie sin, but you should probably keep in mind that you can probably imagine how most of it goes. Overall the writing doesn’t kill the movie, but it does take it down a notch.
Overall I give The Host a 4 out 5. It’s refreshing to see a straight monster movie. It works well as a horror movie, and it has some funny scenes. I just wish that the script had another rewrite so that I could recommend it even more highly.
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