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 Rating: R
Starring:
Song Kang-ho, Scott Wilson, Byun Hee-Bong, Park Hae-il
Directed By: Bong Joon-Ho
When asked what comes to mind about the country of Korea, one may reply with a recollection of the Korean War, fought in the 1950's, or the show, MASH, which lasted longer than the Korean War. They may even mention North Korea's recent bout of insanity that almost triggered a world war with Western civilization.
Who would guess that Bong Joon-Ho, Korea's up and coming director, whose quickly rising popularity has earned him several accolades, would cross anyone's mind here? Maybe it's the fact that he has already established himself as a respected director of comedy, mystery and action-thriller productions.
This award-winning director has experimented and dabbled in various movie genres since the late 90s. His latest, The HOST, better known to his fellow countrymen as "Gwoemul", takes a gander at science fiction/fantasy with an ecological message about illegal toxic waste dumping.
The movie opens with a scene in a U.S. based morgue. An American doctor orders his Korean medical assistant, Mr.Kim, to dump vast quantities of formaldehyde down the sink. Mr. Kim, knowing this method of discarding this type of chemical is inappropriate, protests against the doctor's orders. The doctor; however, eventually persuades Mr. Kim to do as he has been instructed.
This scene functions in two ways. First, it does more than just hint to Western civilization's disregard for the planet. Second, it introduces the movie's audience to a plausible explanation for how the creature in the story evolves to become so enormous and menacing.
The story fast forwards two years, along the Han River in Korea. The Park family is a modest, lower-middle class family that owns a snack food store in the park, situated near the river. The lead character, Kang-du (Song Kang-Ho) is a middle-aged man of low ambition, left with the responsibility of raising his pre-teen daughter after his wife ran off.
Kang-du has a brother, Nam-Il, who is a struggling, unemployed college graduate, looking for a job. His sister, Nam-Joo, is the most accomplished of all the family members. She is an Olympic Bronze medalist in Archery. Kang-du's daughter, Hyun-seo (Ko A-sung), seems to be more on the ball than her father, primarily because Kang-du appears not to have matured past the eighth grade.
During one of his ventures out to the park to serve a food order for one of the park visitors, he notices a group of people observing something suspended upside down from one of the braces of the river's bridge. Forgetting all about the food order, Kang-du joins the other park spectators as they watch this mysterious creature gracefully lower itself down by a rather strong, flexible, long tail and release itself into the water. The panicked park visitors start throwing cans and food at the water to try and deter the unidentified creature from approaching land. Kang-du enthusiastically pitches in on the action. The scene is quite amusing, that is until the creature shows itself again.
The creature, designed by Orphanage Incorporated, known for their work on Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire, is far from anything terrifying at first glance. This giant-sized mud puppy on steroids has a mouth that reflects the old adage, "Too many cooks spoil the soup". That's because it's too confusing. The creature's mouth looks like, if you pardon me, an enormous vagina with the beak-like structure of an octopus' mouth stuck inside. Surrounding the beak-like structure is a gargantuan-sized version of a hook worm's mouth. Needless to say, one can clearly comprehend the confusion.
As mentioned before, this creature, known as the Host because it is suspected of harboring a deadly contagious virus, behaves like a mud puppy on steroids symptomatically speaking. It is angry and easily agitated, not to mention, has a voracious appetite for human flesh.
Hyun-seo makes the mistake of going out to look for her father just as the Mud Puppy makes land and waddles quickly over everything that gets in its way. What doesn't get trampled on usually gets devoured. All mayhem and chaos busts loose with park visitors of all shapes and sizes running amuck for their lives, as Gwoemul (a.k.a the Host or my nickname, Mud Puppy) dives into the human buffet.
Unfortunately, Hyun-seo is one of its victims and she is carried off back to the river and eventually "dropped off", shall we say, into a large sewer where Gwoemul stashes his other food stuffs. This is where the real adventure begins. Now Kang-du, his father and the rest of his siblings fight, dodge and dash from the government and other infamous obstacles as they try to rescue Hyun-seo. Hyun-seo leads them to where she has been stashed by way of a cell phone call.
There are many humorous skits throughout the movie that, upon further retrospect, whisper Mel Brooks' Spaceballs or the more popular Airplane spoofs of the late 70s, early 80s. Consequently, for this director, it's these funny skits and the not-too-convincing ferociousness of the creature, that may hinder this picture from being considered anything other than a B movie. Here's another reminiscent example - Godzilla...
Change the ending, the fate of the main characters, take out the one unmentionable scene with Kang-du after his daughter is taken and create an action figure of the creature to go with every kid's meal purchased and not only will the movie be a sleeper hit, but Bong Joon-Ho will be hailed for his directorial genius.
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