It is lurking behind you.


The Host is a Korean film directed by Bong Joon-Ho, which was released in July 2006 and in less than a month went on to become the highest grossing film of all time in Korea beating previous box office champions (and my personal favorites) Taegukgi, Welcome to Dongmakgol and King and the Clown. The film also recently swept all the awards in its native country in a year which saw so many good films being released.
Bong Joon-Ho is the director of the critically acclaimed masterpiece Memories of Murder, a movie about a real life serial killer in Korea who has not been apprehended till date. Standing along with Se7en as the two greatest serial killer dramas, Memories of Murder is easily the better of the two because of the realism, excellent characterisation and acting and a fantastic ending. It is arguably the best murder mystery ever filmed which sadly never gets solved.
When such a talented director takes on a genre project, Monster horror to be more specific, one cannot simply comprehend what the result would be. Monster movies are almost always bad without exception. One has to only watch the American Godzilla, Anaconda I and II, Komodo Dragon and other such movies to realise that movies in this genre are beyond redemption (Peter Jackson's King Kong had its moments but would fit rather nicely in this category too).
Like all good directors, Bong Joon-Ho might have been looking for a challenge. With the same cast from Memories of Murder and FX done by The Orphanage (who did the FX for Day after Tomorrow) and creature designs by WETA Workshop (LOTR, King Kong), Bong Joon-Ho has delivered a winner. And how!

Story and Screenplay

The movie opens with a flashback into the past showing us a U.S Military base in Korea six years ago. Closely mirroring the events of a real life incident that happened at the same time, an American officer is shown to be commanding a Korean soldier to get rid of some old bottles of toxic Formaldehyde by pouring it down the drain. The Korean soldier refuses to do it, stating that it would pollute the Han river and have devastating effects on the ecology. The Korean soldier is nevertheless ordered to go ahead.
Flash forward to two years later. Two men can be seen fishing in the Han river. One of them notices something strange swimming in the water and scoops it in his cup and shows it to his friend. While trying to touch it, the fisherman is bitten on the finger and the small creature swims away.
Flash forward to the present. The film now focusses on the dysfunctional Park family. Park Gang-du (yet another amazing performance by Song Kang-Ho) is a slightly mentally challenged man who runs a snack kiosk on the banks of the Han river. He lives with his father Park Hee-bong and his daughter Hyun-seo.
While serving fried squid to one of his customers, Gang-du notices something huge hanging upside down from the bridge. Others notice it too and soon there's a crowd looking at the thing in awe. It dives into the water and the crowd starts throwing snacks into the river. There is even an Indian family there shouting "Dekho! Machli!". The creature soon makes a terrifying appearance, emerging from the water and chaos ensues.

While fleeing from the scene with Hyun-seo, Gang-du trips and falls down only to get up and start running again, but he realises that he grabbed another girl in the confusion. Hyun-seo is left behind...




A horrified Gang-du tries to warn her ...




But she's gone...




The Park family believe that Hyun-seo is not dead and they must fight against all odds to get her back. More than just a very entertaining Man VS Monster story, Gwoemul is also a black comedy which contains social and political commentary. The Koreans have a mild anti-American feeling because of the American military presence there and this shows in the film too. The film also parodies the 'All-American Hero' and takes a dig at usual 'Americans interfering in world affairs issue' effectively. (Compare this to the pro American feeling in the film Taegukgi, in which the Americans help the South Koreans defeat the Chinese and the North Koreans)

Cast, Characters and Acting

While the acting was good all around, Song Kang-Ho probably carried this film too on the strength of his performance. It can't beat his superlative performance as a bumbling small town cop in Memories of Murder though.

Special effects

It was mentioned earlier in the review that the FX for Gwoemul was done by The Orphanage and WETA. A major part of the finances for this big budget movie must have gone for the FX and it shows.
The moment the creature burst out of the water in the opening sequence, I jumped in my seat in awe. The creature design is impressive and I simply loved the way they showed it somersaulting backwards into water and swinging through the steel construction girders. The creature actually had character and seemed playful and dangerously menacing at the same time.

In conclusion, I can only say :

Bravo Bong Joon-Ho. You've done it again. This might very well be the greatest monster film of all time.


Reviewer : foogarky