RUNNING
TIME: 1 hr. 59 min.
RATING: R -
creature violence and language
CAST: Song
Kang-ho, Byun Hee-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Du-na, Ko A-Sung
Director:
Bong Joon-ho
GENRE:
Monster Film, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi Horror
The Host contains
the most dramatic, terrifying entrance of a monster I have seen since the "chest
burster” tear its way through John Hurt’s chest in Alien.
That alone makes
The Host worth seeing.
The talk of the
2006 Cannes festival, The Host comes by way of Korea. Directed by Boon Jong-Ho,
it is scary, fast, funny and extremely touching…everything a monster movie
should be.
It also makes a
huge, hit-you-over-the-head environmental statement.
The Host opens
with irresponsible American and South Korean scientists dumping toxic chemicals
into the Han River. They know it’s wrong, but hey what else are you going to do
with toxic chemicals. Hello BP! I guess this actually based on a real account -
in February 2000 at a US military facility located in the center of Seoul, a US
military civilian employee named Mr. McFarland was ordered to dispose of
formaldehyde by dumping it into the sewer system that led to the Han River
despite the objection of a South Korean subordinate.
Well, back to
the movie.
Several years
later we meet Park Gang-Du, played by Song Kang-ho, he’s a happy go lucky dad
who works with his father, played by Hee Bong, running a fast food stand near
the Han River. Park doesn’t really like to work. He’d much rather watch his
sister the archer on TV drinking a beer with his daughter played by Hail IL
Park.
Things change
when Park is delivering an order of squid to some patrons camped out by the
river. Their attention is on something else other than their food. Something
large and strange hangs from the bottom of a bridge.
Then it drops
into the water.
RUN!
It’s a ferocious
mutated creature born of the formaldehyde!
Unfortunately as
Gang Du is on the run – he also saves a couple of people, but watches more get
gobbled up, his daughter is grabbed by the thing’s tail and yanked into the Han
River.
In a state of
shock over the events, Gang Du’s dysfunctional family joins up to find his
daughter in a labyrinth of sewers throughout Seoul.
At its heart,
The Host is about a family putting aside their differences to save one of their
own. But make no mistake; it is a heart-pounding monster movie. The creature,
created digitally by the Orphanage, is something I have never seen on the
screen before. Part fish. Part dinosaur. All hungry. The FX are top notch as
well as the acting.
There are
definite homages to Godzilla and Mothra, but this is an original all the same.
I want to see
more from this director Bong.
MOVIE: FIVE
BALL POINT PENS
EXTRAS: TWO
BALL POINT PENS
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