The Host

The Host Review
After an extensive dumping of formaldehyde into the Han River in the year 2000, a monstrous beast somehow emerges from the depths of the water in 2006, causing havoc in Korea. An American military man stationed in Korea came into contact with the monster, and scientists discovered that the beast passed on a deadly and unknown virus to the man. Gang-du and his family were at the scene of the beast's initial emergence, and Gang-du's daughter, Hyun-seo, is kidnapped by the beast and is thought to be dead. Because Gang-du came into contact with the monster, the government confines him at the hospital for testing. A phone call to Gang-du in the middle of the night from Hyun-seo revives hope in the family that Hyun-seo is still alive and trapped somewhere, and the family escapes the hospital. Since the government believes the family to be potential carriers of the virus, a reward for the family's re-capture is issued. Can Gang-du's family save Hyun-seo from the beast before it's too late?

Coming into this movie I had high expectations. This movie did break the all-time Korean box-office record, but truthfully I'm not sure how. Perhaps it's because Koreans were getting fed up with all the love-dramas that are pouring out of the country, and they want something fresh and unique. The Host is definitely different than what Korea is used to, but it's still pretty similar to many American monster films; the Alien and Predator series comes to mind.

What's interesting is that the movie's main antagonist could probably be seen as the government, especially the American government. While the beast is a major catalyst for the problems of the family, it is the government that tries to stop Gang-du and company from saving Hyun-seo. Later in the film, a plot twist will further cause the government to be seen as the major antagonist. I would have preferred the movie to focus more on the monster rather than the government simply because the monster is more interesting.

The visuals of The Host are its redeeming quality. I've still seen many American films with better special effects, but I was still quite impressed with how this movie turned out. In fact, the special effects group for this movie was the same one that worked on The Day After Tomorrow, so you know that you're going to see some pretty wowing CGI. The beast looks somewhat like a mix of aliens and predators from the movie, Alien vs Predator. It's incredibly nasty and vicious, and it also looked very realistic (or as realistic as a monster can be).

The characters all had pretty varying personalities which made the movie a bit more interesting. The father, Gang-du, was a bit too goofy which made his character unbelievable, but he added a lot of comedic relief to dramatic moments. Gang-du's brother was the foil to Gang-du, being smart and logical but also brash and harsh at times. Gang-du's sister Nam-joo seemed to be thrown in here for very little reason, since she does nothing but "slow down" the plot (you'll know what I mean after watching the movie). A lot of the characters in the movie seemed to be added just so there could be more characters, while not really adding any value to the plot or the drama. Unfortunately, none of the actors looked that great. I would probably have enjoyed this movie a bit more if there was at least a little bit of eye-candy, but all the characters are played by average looking actors (but most of them can act well).

Watch this movie if you are getting bored of the same-old Korean romance movies that come out of Korea. It's not a completely stereotypical monster movie, but it does contain quite a few monster-movie cliches that lessen its value. For the top movie of 2006, The Host doesn't really impress me, but generally speaking, this film is probably worth a watch.

Written by Lance


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The Host Cast
Kang-ho Song as Park Kang-du
Hie-bong Byeon as Park Hie-bong
Hae-il Park as Park Nam-il
D-na Bae as Park Nam-ju
Ah-sung Ko as Park Hyun-seo