Monster movies have always captured audiences’ attention. From King Kong and Godzilla to The Blob and Jaws, cinematic monsters leave us both in awe and terror, as we contemplate our effect on nature. In it’s bold continuation of the monster movie tradition, The Host is both shocking and surprising, but not because of graphic violence or exploited terror. It breaks from genre conventions so quickly, that you are left off-kilter, not knowing what to expect next. It’s a monster movie that plays like the filmmakers have never seen another monster movie, and it’s a breath of fresh air in a rather stale genre.
Thanks to Americans who blithely pollute the Han river (we just screw up everything), a slippery, amphibious monster with fearsome mandibles, a prehensile tail, and an endless supply of surprise moves haunts the sewers of Seoul. The creature is designed by Weta, the New Zealand special effects shop responsible for The Lord of the Rings, but the heroes are 100 percent Korean. When the monster abducts adorable Hyun-seo (Ko Ah-sung), the rest of her family has to get past untrustworthy government agencies and backstabbing salarymen to find and save her: her ramen-vendor father (Song Kang-ho) and grandfather (Byeon Hie-bong), drunken Uncle (Park Hae-il), and her aunt, a perennially losing archer (Bae Du-na.) Too bad all of them are prone to screwing up just when it matters most.
Shot as beautifully as any art-house film but paced like a blockbuster, The Host manages to satisfy (almost) all of our genre expectations while curious details give the characters life above and beyond the necessities of mutant fodder. Our hero has coins stuck to his face when we first meet him, disposable fishermen worry about their daughters’ favorite cups, and lazy-eyed scientists replay the finale of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as farce.
Breaking all box-office records in Korea’s history, The Host is a movie about a mutant that’s a bit of a mutation itself; with unflappable confidence, director Bong Joon-ho grafts droll humor and sly political commentary onto the DNA of a classic Hollywood creature feature. The result strikes a perfect balance between broad social satire, comedy, and honest-to-god horror thrills. In case we had forgotten, Bong Joon-ho proves that it’s possible to make CGI extravaganzas that entertain without insulting an audience’s intelligence.
For all the flash and the bang, Bong never loses sight of where The Host‘s true power lies. This is a film about the power of family, a film about the small people who make a difference simply by doing what little they can while the powers-that-be flail about aimlessly in their self-imposed ignorance. While it meets the demands of its chosen genre on every level it also simultaneously manages to find new territory to mine, new legs for the old beast. The ending surprises while it satisfies, simultaneously playing directly to expectations while also refusing to play the easy hand. It is simply a very strong effort that continues to cement Bong’s reputation as one of the world’s great film talents. Very highly recommended.