The Host (2006)

The Host is a South Korean monster movie centered around a dysfunctional family slowly, painfully coming together in trying to find their child, who was nabbed by the monster in its initial appearance in Korea. Kang-ho Song plays the slacker dad Park Gang-doo. With his bleach blonde hair and his saggy sweat pants, we get an immediate visual cue that this guy is not a very detail-oriented guy.

Breaking away from typical monster movie norms, director Joon-ho Bong (Mother, Memoirs of Murder - both of which are definitely worth checking out) quickly shows us exactly what we are dealing with. It takes all of 15 minutes before we get our first look at the monster as it attacks onlookers by the Han River. It looks something of a tadpole with giant forelegs, making it a fast and agile creature, often moving almost like an acrobat. At the end of its rampage, it grabs Hyun-seo and takes her with it as it returns to its den.

In the aftermath, people who were there are gathered in a gymnasium for a memorial service. The Park family is reunited in the tragedy of loss. Gang-doo's sister, the bronze medal archer Nam-joo, ignores her family as she walks straight up to the picture of Hyun-seo and breaks down into tears. His brother Nam-il, a former protester and hacker, shows up drunk, immediately blaming his idiot brother. As everyone around them sits in mourning, this family starts fighting, then trying to stop the fight, all while crying. It devolves from a sad, serious scene into an over-the-top comedic one. This perfectly exhibits the general tone of the film. It isn't light hearted, but it is funny. Conversely, it is poignant, but it's not too serious.

Gang-doo eventually gets a phone call from Hyun-seo. She is trapped in a sewer, but she's still alive. The Park family unites and escapes the hospital in order to search the sewers for Hyun-seo. All the while, the South Korean government is being regularly chastised by the Americans for failing to contain the virus and the creature and subsequently intervenes. They take over the hunt by authorizing the release of a chemical called Agent Yellow by the Han River to kill the monster. This sparks protest by angry Koreans who don't want any more chemicals dropped in their river. All plot points - from Nam-joo's archery to Nam-ils past as a rebellious college kid to Gang-doo's desperate rescue attempt for his daughter to the Korean/American stand off - converges at the end. The monster stuffs its mouth with Hyun-seo and another young child captured and heads off to the shore where protesters are butting heads with police as they move a device that will release the Agent Yellow.

The film is not anti-American, but it does have rather strong criticisms of the United States. It's easy to spot the sentiment here, where they make it seem as though the US is lying to get hands-on with a South Korean problem, but the movie isn't entirely anti-American. Indeed, during the first attack, they show a young American soldier on leave risking his life to help people being chased by the monster. It's almost to say that Americans are good people, but the government is shady and manipulative (something probably not that hard to argue, actually). In this way, it felt totally fair.

If you're not familiar with Kang-ho Song, you should check out his work. One of the most entertaining actors on Earth.

Though it breaks away from a lot of typical monster movie tropes and cliches (which is refreshing), it does hold on to one: the introduction scene being based on a real event. As unbelievable as that opening scene is (which features Scott Wilson as the crazy American scientist - Wilson probably best known at this point for his role as Hershel on The Walking Dead), it actually happened. There really was an American scientist who got annoyed that his chemical bottles had dust on them and thus dumped them in the Han River!  With an intro scene based on a real, controversial event and with its criticisms of American policy, it shares a bed with other classic monster movies like Ishiro Honda's masterpiece Gojira. But it does change up the formula in a lot of ways.

It has a unique charm to it, being both incredibly suspenseful and very funny. Most of the story involves this dysfunctional family coming together for a singular purpose. The Host is pretty much Little Miss Sunshine meets Jaws. It depicts a smaller scale version of the monster attack, certainly done better than the way they tried to do the "small scale view" with Cloverfield. This monster movie mixes the personal feel with the wider scope.

The movie is incredibly well acted, with each character making instantly likable characters who you root for the entire film. The character development flows perfectly as we watch Gang-doo slowly evolve into responsible adult and parent, but it took time. He was still screwing things up a long way - in one instance, his screw up costs a life. But he eventually does get his act together. Meanwhile, his brother Nam-il who constantly insults his brother for screwing up nearly blows everything by making a huge mistake himself. By the end, everyone is on equal footing.

In what is a rather surprising twist, they ultimately fail. They cannot save Hyun-seo in time. But Hyun-seo had been able to take care of and save another kid, Se-joo. In this sense, Hyun-seo was the only one who didn't screw things up. This was the final thing pushing Gang-doo into "growing up." Though he couldn't save his own daughter, he saw that she saved this other young boy. Gang-doo winds up adopting the boy and caring for him as his daughter did, and as he knows he should have always done for his daughter.

The final scene shows how far we've come as it we see Gang-doo looking out of the food shack, only this time, he is not the slacker screw-up he was during the opening shots. Instead of lazily watching out, looking bored, he has his rifle by his side and he is staring down at the river, ever vigilante should something else rise up to the shore. Gone is his bleach blonde hair and baggy sweat pants. For the first time, he is dressed like a real adult, and when we see him feed Se-joo, we know that now he finally is.

REDUCTIVE RATING: Amazing!
(Rating Scale - Terrible..., Pretty Bad, It's Fine, Pretty Good, Amazing!)