The Host By Stephenie Meyer

Film bellissimo

This is one of my favourite foreign language movies and not just because I like horror and monster movies but because this one is so well done.

Firstly, you have the family dynamic which to me seems perfectly balanced with them hating and loving one another with annoyance and anger, laughter and pain making this seem one of the more realistic family units of recent times.

When a undersea monster kidnaps his daughter Hyun-seo, perennial underachiever and lifelong slacker Park Gang-du who runs a small snack business with his father realises he might lose the only thing he actually cares about and he springs into action while trying to evade the authorities and save her.

With his father, sister and brother still bickering and fighting they set out to save Hyun-seo and receive a phone call from her letting them know she is alive and in a sewer system where she also tries to protect an even younger child Se-joo taken by the huge and utterly unique monster.

To say anymore would be to ruin the wonderful surprises this film has in store for viewers, it is a wonderful South Korean movie with excellent special effects and marked the director out as one to watch in Bong Joon-ho, he also brought us the bonkers Snowpiercer and the excellent Parasite.

Definitely one for those who do not care what language their entertainment comes in as long as it entertains, and boy does this film succeed wildly there.

In the morgue at an American base in South Korea, an American doctor orders his Korean assistant to dump a massive amount of cloudy (infected?) formaldehyde, even though it will go directly into the great Han river. The guilt-ridden assistant later commits suicide by jumping off a bridge into the river, but not before he sees something huge swimming in the water.

This “something” makes itself known one sunny day when it rampages through the crowd picnicing on the river frontage. This is an awesome monster! It doesn’t stand still long enough for me to get a good count of it’s limbs, but there’s story references to a squid having nine legs before we see the monster. And it has a long prehensile tail with the diamond shape tip of a squid tail. So I think I’m safe in saying that the creature is a monsterized squid.

The plot references to the long sucker-“legs” of a squid come from the Park family, operating a snack bar on the river. This is a quirky family, with great characterizations. Grandfather Hie-bong is in charge. One son, Nam-il, in his suit and tie, is a college graduate in need of a job. The daughter, Nam-ju, is participating in the Olympics when the monster makes itself known. And the eldest son, Kang-Du, has a good heart, but he can’t seem to do anything right. That is, except for having a daughter, Hyun-seo. She comes home from her day in junior high just in time for the monster to wrap its tail around her and cart her off into the river.

Her aunt, Nam-ju, returns home with a bronze medal in archery, but all celebration is forgotten in the grief over the death of beloved Hyun-seo. Then, wait for it, Kang-Du gets a call from his daughter! Her battery is dying, but she has time to plead with her father to find her in the sewers. The monster has placed her, one alive amongst several bodies, in its larder.

“The Host” is old-fashioned in that, like an old Godzilla movie, it is the fault of man that there is a monster at all. And there is no blood and gore – but this is still a really cool monster and it does enjoy eating people. The government response is typically incompetent. Everyone is quarantined – an American soldier who came in contact with the monster exhibits a virus. The Korean police won’t believe that Kang-Du received a call (and refuse to check his phone records). The Americans over-react by spraying everyone with a toxic chemical Agent Yellow.

What’s a family to do? Put aside internal bickering, escape from the quarantine and go find their little girl, of course! And in the meantime, little Hyun-seo is showing her own mettle, doing what she can to outsmart the monster and protect an orphan boy added to the larder after her.

There’s a lot of humor, much of it stemming from Kang-Du’s goofiness. The action sequences are exciting and the monster, have I mentioned this yet, is really GREAT!

“The Host” was South Korea’s top-grossing film of all time when it came out in 2006. It deserves its accolades. A scary, intelligently written and beautifully filmed movie. And I usually don’t appreciate horror/monster movies. I recommend watching it in Korean with English subtitles. We tried watching it with the option for English dubbing, but we found the dubbing to be so annoying, we switched to subtitles.

Happy Reader

If you have not seen the movie, and you are a fan of “creature features”, you need to see it immediately. Trust me.
This review has been heavily edited: when my DVD player died, I got a BD player — and bought this film on BD!
The /movie/ is great. I’ve enjoyed it every time I’ve seen it.
The original DVD The Host (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition) was purchased when it first came out, and play successfully for several years; but, last December, the DVD player claimed it was “dirty” and the computer software player reported that it “could not read” a file.
The disc was discolored, and online research suggested that this was because of “disk rot” — that is, a manufacturing defect.
Since only the movie disc was affected, I ordered the single-disc edition. When it failed I sent it back for a replacement.
Although the details varied, /both/ discs, when the film was played, stopped at the same point; at first, I thought this was Ch 19, but further research suggests Ch 18. This may be the layer change, or it may be where the manufacturing defect is located.
But the BD plays just fine. And has its own set of special features, which highlight The Orphanage rather than Weta.
So, if you have a DVD of this film that died, and you can play BD discs, this one should do the trick!

J’avais vu pas mal de parties de ce film sans jamais l’avoir vu en intégral. J’adore les films asiatiques. J’ADORE. Ma collection augmente grace à Amazon sinon où trouver des films asiatiques!!!! Peut être qu’il en faudrait plus en français ou avec sous titre car beaucoup de films m’interesse sur le site d’Amazon mais pas de langue française ni sous titre, MINCE!!!! Peut être que cel viendra. Pour parler de Host, ce film est somptueux pour ma part. Hallucinant! Tentée de rire parfois puis à chaque fois comme par surprise la minute d’après un drame arrive. le naturel des acteurs dans ce film est éblouissant. Tos les acteurs sont hyper doué, même les petits rôles et cela dans tous leurs films. Il est vrai que Song Kang-ho est fantastique comme acteur. Un véritable passe partout. “Mémory of murder”, “Thirst” que je dois visionner, “Parasite”,” le bon, le brute, le cinglé” tourné comme un cow boy déjanté wow! “Sympathie for mr vengeance” génial! Pour ne citer qu’eux. Ravie , ravie, ravie