‘When a parent’s heart breaks, the sound can carry for miles…’
One of the great things about Bong Joon Ho is not just that he has become a flag bearer for foreign language cinema, having become a hugely successful and Oscar-winning director, but that he has done it whilst also directing genre movies rather than prestige dramas. 2003’s neo-crime drama Memories of Murder announced the South Korean director to the world but it was 2006’s eco-monster fable The Host that made people sit up and take notice…
Following the decision by a hilariously evil American pathologist to dump a bunch of formaldehyde in the Han River in Seoul, reports of a strange amphibious creature begin to emerge throughout the South Korean capital. Years later, we meet Park Gang-Doo (Song Kang-ho) an amiable but slow-witted man who runs a small snack bar in Hangang Park with his father, Hee-Bong (Byun Hee-bong) and daughter Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung). Things take a dark turn when the aforementioned amphibian creature wreaks havoc at Hangang Park and kidnaps Hyun-seo whilst also seemingly infecting everyone it comes into contact with with a deadly virus.
The Host is a film that is simultaneously incredibly fun, witness the monster’s first rampage, one of the best monster attack scenes ever committed to film, for evidence of that, whilst also having moments of real sadness. The film touches on grief, ecological disaster and government corruption throughout its two-hour run time without ever losing sight of the fact that it is at its core supposed to be an entertaining monster movie. While it dips in the middle before the wonderfully nihilistic conclusion, it is obvious that there is a clear directorial voice behind the camera here calling the shots.
While The Host is not Bong Joon Ho’s most accomplished work, not even close, really, it is still a monster movie with a singular and compelling style and vision.