Gwoemul [The Host] (2006)
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“The Host” is a Korean monster movie that unlike most Korean movies managed to attract some attention in Britain and America on its release, perhaps because it manages to be a better monster movie than the vast majority of recent Hollywood efforts.
The movie begins with a scene in an American military base in South Korea with an American military doctor ordering his Korean minion to dispose of a large quantity of chemicals by pouring it into the sewers and hence into the Han River. The inspiration for this scene (and the whole film) apparently came from a similar incident that caused a national scandal in South Korea a few years ago. While in reality the incident caused outrage and pollution, in the film the dumping of the chemicals also has a much more serious effect, leading to the development of the mutant monster that the film is based around.
The creature, a large, fast-moving, vicious and ugly river dwelling monster attacks a crowded riverside park, emerging from the Han River to attack the people on the shore, carrying some of them off to its lair. One of those taken is a young girl, Park Hyun-seo, who ends up trapped in the monster’s home with only some corpses and an orphaned young boy for company. The authorities, seemingly more keen to cover up the cause of the incident than to look for survivors, declare that Hyun-seo is dead, but her dysfunctional family refuse to believe it. The Park family consisting of Hyun-seo’s narcoleptic father, her grandfather and uncle and aunt set out to try to save Hyun-seo despite their general lack of competence and the fact that the area around the monster attack is now a quarantine zone with armed guards around it.
The tone of the movie is a bit inconsistent, which ends up being part of the film’s charm. The scenes of the monster attacks are very effective action scenes, the monster and its lair are appropriately gruesome and Hyun-seo’s predicament is genuinely tense. On the other hand, the scenes with the rest of the Park family are often played more for comic effect, although there is still some seriousness as they desperately try to save Hyun-seo, there is also some quite silly slapstick and amusing squabbling between the different members of the Park family. While some of the humour may have been lost in translation, the Park family’s escapades are still entertaining. Arguably, the film could do with fewer comedy scenes and more scenes of the monster (which apart from the initial attack and the finale of the film doesn’t do all that much), although the scarceness of the monster attacks does increase their effectiveness when they do occur.
The film is well-directed, particularly the opening monster attack, and the acting is generally good throughout, particularly the performance of Ah-sung Ko as Hyun-seo. The special effects are quite good, although the monster is still obviously CGI it is good enough CGI to be believable.
In summary, “The Host” is an entertaining film whose combination of humour and horror makes it a very likeable B-movie, although the ratio is possibly skewed slightly too much towards the comedy side.
Rating : 7˝ / 10
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All content ©2007 William Marnoch.
Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .