This movie is an interesting one, I’m becoming a real fan of Korean movies, their form of story telling seems innocent, funny sometimes silly but the characters have more depth and the story develops in a less formulaic manner.
The Host was a tricky one, I heard it was about a virus and thought, ‘Korean style ‘outbreak’ movie’ but got a nice surprise when I hired it. The benefits of not reading the cover! The problems begin with a stupid American (easy to believe) telling a Korean guy to flush ‘dirty formaldehyde’ down the drain, where it will flow into the Han river (Koreas main river system). Eventually he complies and we wait with baited breath for the results.
Enter a dysfunctional family Korean style. Dad Hie-bong played by (Hie-bong Byeon) owns a food stand and works hard to support his family of three. His son Gang-Du (Kang-Ho Song) spends most of his time sleeping and has a daughter Hyun-Seo played well by Ah-Sung Ko. His other son Nam-il (Hae-il Park) is a degree holder with no job and his sister Nam-Joo (Du-na Bae) is an Olympian Archer. Got all that? It’s hard at first to work out how they are all related but the characters are better explained throughout the film. (In Korean movies they don’t tell you everything at once).
The performances are all fantastic and the characters are great to watch. Gang-Du tugs at the heart strings and you feel deeply moved by Hie-bong explaining to Gang-Du’s siblings why they need to honor and respect him. Its essentially a kidnapping story rather then a creature story but this works well in the context of the film. I like the way the goal of finding Hyun-Seo is taken up by the family as a whole but then is passed like a batton from one member (when they can’t go on) to the next.
The action starts early on in the piece and the cg is flawless! Well worth a look. This was co written and directed by Joon-ho Bong. Its easy to see his influences (see the extras for more on this) and the extras are amazing to watch!
Wow: The film was shot along the Han river and the tunnels and underground scenes were filmed in real locations. Check out the footage in the extras! It’s amazing the lengths the Korean director and actors were willing to go to get their film made. It makes the Americans look like spoilt overpaid brats.
