"The Host", or "Gwoemul" ("monster" in Korean), stands as one of the finest examples of horror-fantasy cinema to emerge in the last several years. It is simultaneously beautiful, terrifying, and heart-wrenching. It is also the biggest South Korean movie of all time, deservedly so. The cutting-edge special effects are primarily by Weta Workshop, the same New Zealanders behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But it is the human aspect of the movie that has the biggest impact. These are characters you will always remember.
THE DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
- The Han River: The River has flown with us and around us. A fearsome Creature makes a sudden appearance from the depths of this river, so familiar and comfortable for us Seoulites. The riverbanks are instantly plunged into a bloody chaos. The film begins at the precise moment, in which a space familiar and intimate to us, is suddenly transformed into the stage of an unthinkable disaster and tragedy.
- The Family: Park Gang-du and his family have led ordinary, repetitive lives, never really extending beyond the confines of their small food stand on the banks of the Han River. They are devastated by the emergence of the Creature. Robbed of their peaceful daily routines, Gang-du and his family nonetheless throw themselves into a life-and-death struggle against the Creature. The film shows how these exceedingly normal people, no different from our everyday neighbors, are transformed into monster-fighting warriors.
- A Fight to the Death: The Creature is not the only adversary they have to fight. For Gang-du and his family, impoverished, powerless “little people,” the whole world around them is revealed to be a true monster. They have to fight against it tooth and nail. In the end, the film is a record of their fight to the death against the indifferent, calculating and manipulative Monster known as the world.
-Director Bong Joon-ho
The Host Trailer page at Movie-List
The Host DVD at Amazon
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