Director: Joon-ho Bong
Cast: Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park

When I am not watching movies, I often think back on the many movies I have watched in my life, both movies from Hollywood and movies from other countries. I often find it interesting to see not only how Hollywood filmmakers' attitudes to their movies is often different that those of foreign filmmakers, but also how the attitude can change during the decades. One genre where you can find interesting comparisons is with the giant monster film genre. Contrary to what many people believe, the whole giant monster film genre did not start in the 1950s. If you look at the decades just before the 1950s, you will find there were a few giant monster movies made. Some of the obvious examples include King Kong and Mighty Joe Young. Some less obvious examples include One Million B.C. and the silent movie The Lost World (I think dinosaurs can be considered monsters.) If you look at those four Hollywood examples, you will see that the monsters came completely from Mother Nature, without any input from mankind. As for examples of monster movies coming from foreign film industries from this same era, well, I have to admit that my knowledge of them is extremely limited. The only one that I can immediately think of is from an article I once read about a Japanese rip-off of King Kong. It was a silent film and depicted King Kong with an actor in a gorilla suit instead of using stop motion animation. It sounded nutty enough that I would have sought out a copy to watch if it were available, but it isn't; apparently the negative got destroyed during the firebombing of Tokyo in World War II.

We have to skip ahead to the 1950s before the giant monster film genre starts getting really interesting on both the domestic front and the foreign front. As you probably know, the 1950s were when the atomic age started, and the field of science started to get really popular. Both of those things really gave a serious injection of energy into Hollywood when it came to giant monster movies, ranging from radiation from atomic bomb tests making giant ants in Them! to mad scientists experimenting with growth hormones making a giant spider in Tarantula. As you can see from those two examples, as well as other 1950s Hollywood examples, giant monsters were being created because of mankind interfering in scientific areas where apparently these areas should have been left alone. As for other countries getting into the act of churning out their own giant monster movies, the output from the 1950s to the present day has been interesting. Japan certainly made a great deal of giant monster movies from the 1950s to the present day. The one that started it all was of course the original 1954 movie Godzilla. In that first movie, Godzilla was made to be a threat to mankind, and it was pretty much stated that the blame for that was because of the atomic bomb tests that the Americans were doing in the Pacific Ocean. (It should come as no surprise that when the movie was brought to America, this angle of the movie was severely cut down.) But in subsequent Godzilla movies, Godzilla slowly became a savior to mankind, saving the world from various other giant monsters coming from various sources.

Since the 1950s, the giant monster film genre has changed a number of times. For example, in the late 1960s through the 1970s, how the genre was at the beginning - giant monsters coming strictly through Mother Nature - made a kind of comeback with movies like The Crater Lake Monster and the remake of King Kong. However, in the present day, modern giant monster movies have returned largely to the idea of mankind intentionally (or unintentionally) being the cause of these giant monsters being produced and going on their inevitable rampages. Maybe it's because in some aspect we are living in cynical times. Whatever the reason or reasons may be, modern day Hollywood likes to blame mankind for giant monsters, specifically those working to some degree for the American government. As for modern day foreign giant monster movies, I must admit I haven't seen all that many examples. So I decided to take a look at the Korean giant monster movie The Host. Though I was interested in seeing its explanation for its giant monster, I must admit I was more concerned with it being entertaining. The monster in this movie is an aquatic monster, one that lives in the Han River in South Korea.  Over the course of the movie, we learn that years earlier a representative of the American military in the country ordered the disposal of chemicals into the river. As you probably guessed, the chemicals got into the systems of the river's animal life, causing one of them to mutate and grow to a gigantic size... as well as changing its thinking so that it now considers humans prey.

Although that above plot description was not very large, from it you have probably guessed that the way The Host unfolds is in a way that more or less follows the well-worn path of many other monster movies where man is responsible for the creation of the monster that the characters of the movie have to deal with. But as it turns out, the screenplay for this particular monster movie does change things around somewhat. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.) Certainly, there are plot elements that are exceedingly familiar, such as the aforementioned plot element of the military being responsible for the monster's creation, as well as the military making great effort to cover up things as much as possible. But there are plot turns that you are probably not expecting. For example, while you may think that the monster stays hidden for a long time before exposing itself to the audience, his full revelation actually happens at the twelve-minute mark. Not only that, the monster then promptly goes on a big rampage that exposes itself to the world, something that typically happens near the end of a monster movie. There is a nagging question as to how this gigantic monster managed to stay pretty much hidden from the public for several years - a question many monster movies never really explain - but at least some thought went into making the story play out differently. There are other interesting aspects to be found in the story. While some people (especially in North Korea) found the movie to be a savage attack against the American presence in South Korea, the movie is more balanced than you might think. Certainly, there is the fact that the American military was responsible for making the creature and taking desperate control of the situation despite protests. On the other hand, when the monster makes its grand entrance and starts killing and eating dozens of people at once, an American later identified as being part of the U.S. military is shown risking his life to save the Korean citizens around him.

Another way that the screenplay for The Host is more balanced than you might think is that many of the Korean citizens depicted in the movie don't come across in a very good light. Much of the movie centers around the members of a very dysfunctional family by the name of Park, as they attempt to rescue the youngest member of their family after she is abducted by the monster and is trapped in the city's sewer system. The father of the young girl is portrayed as somewhat of a dimwit, and he squabbles frequently with his adult siblings and father. It's quite a change from the usual noble and smart heroes you usually find in these types of movies, and it helps to give this family interest despite being given limited character development. Other Korean citizens that pop up during the movie are portrayed as being greedy and selfish, or sometimes completely wrong in their opinion despite mass agreement. Sometimes this is played for humor by director/co-writer Joon-ho Bong (Snowpiercer), and it is amusing at times. Bong's direction isn't perfect, however. For one thing, he shoots the movie in a way that gives it very dark colors. While I was certainly not asking for the movie to have bright and vibrant colors, Bong goes too far in the opposite direction, and the cold and grimy feel of the enterprise doesn't wear well; you may want to have a very warm shower afterwards. Another problem comes from the fact that Bong frequently shoots scenes with the camera jammed close to the actors, making it difficult to get a sense of the environment. Bong also, for some strange reason, more often than not doesn't give any establishing shots when a new scene starts, which will result with many viewers being momentarily bewildered about what they are observing at a particular moment. There are also some places where footage seems to be missing, like when the father suddenly knows where his abducted daughter is being held after getting a cell phone call from her, despite before the end of the scene the connection being almost impossible to make out.

Despite these and a few other minor problems with Bong's direction, Bong does manage to keep the audience interested throughout; while the movie is almost two hours long, it is pretty fast-paced, and there are definitely no boring sections. As you may have guessed, the more interesting parts of the movie are those that involve the gigantic monster doing its thing. Given that the movie only had a budget of $12 million, you might question before watching the movie as I did if the special effects are up to par. There are a few shots where the CGI effects look somewhat crummy, like when the monster is shown swimming under the surface of the Han River. But when the monster is on a rampage, it doesn't look too bad for the budget. Don't get me wrong, it isn't Jurassic Park quality, but the monster's elaborate (and original) design looks interesting and intriguing enough to compensate for it obviously being a CGI creation. Bong also boosts these monster sequences by inserting a genuine feeling that the human characters are facing something very very deadly and dangerous. The monster scenes do work pretty well, though it is a bit curious that there are somewhat less monster sequences than you might think. I don't know if that was due to the somewhat limited budget, or Boon trying very hard to make the movie a much different monster movie than usual. Whatever the cause or causes might be, I would have liked a few more appearances by the monster. As you can see, The Host does have some flaws that I think don't make it appropriate to label it as some modern monster movie classic as some critics have. But it does succeed in more areas than in areas when it stumbles, and if you are getting tired of seeing formulaic monster movies, the movie does provide enough fresh touches to lift it up above many other efforts.

(Posted October 1, 2022)