Korea Hosts An Amazing Monster Movie
American horror movies have been in a sorry state in the last decade. They've either been sado-masochistic such as the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, or they've been expensive rehashes of Asian horror films such as The Grudge and The Ring.
Now comes the second great film from Korea (the first was the incredibly poetic and violent Oldboy), The Host (Gwoemul). The host brings back a bygone age of horror movies that has been missing for a long time, the monster movie. Not only is the best monster movie in about twenty years, but it has one of the coolest monsters to hit celluloid since The Predator.
The opening five minutes are by far the silliest in the movie. On an American military base, an American doctor orders his Korean subordinate to dump tons of "dirty formaldihyde" down the drain and into the Han River. Now I don't think for one second that this would create the monster that is to come, nor do I think the filmmakers do either. This scene really sets up what The Host's real subject is about, interruption of daily life by an outside influence.
Skip around about six years where we meet the Park family. They have a food stand on the side of the Han River. The Parks are made up of a grandfather, his two sons and one daughter, and one grandchild to the laziest of the sons. It is that same son that sees something strange hanging from a bridge over the river. Along with other spectators who gather to watch, they observe the thing dive into to the water with grace. Some even call it an "Amazonian River Dolphin", and start throwing junk into the river to get it's attention. Needless to say it does and soon everybody's running for cover as the monster starts tearing through it's victims. During the chaos, the monster grabs the youngest park and takes her out to the river and puts her in a little cove for safe keeping (late night snack).
The rest of the family is herded off to a gymnasium with the other survivors where they're told that the monster contains a virus that infects all that it touches. The Park family pull off a daring escape in a van that almost reminded me of Little Miss Sunshine (being that both families are incredibly dysfunctional, where would I get such an idea?). They go after the monster in the sewers of Seoul while the police and the hazmat teams, not to mention the US military and Korean revolutionaries are hunting for them.
The film, like all monster movies, isn't interested in realism, but is wanting to talk more about family dynamics, the lobsided affairs between the US and Korea, and weapons that are waged on average people, both by propaganda and by chemical substance. There are great scenes of splendid drama where characters are revealed with such tenderness and understanding that we like them, warts and all. The film shows a Korea split at the seams with paranoia and fear, fueled by US involvement, perhaps with a little more gasoline concerning North Korea's tinkering with nuclear weapons. By the time we get to the final act, there can be said that the last victims of the monster, are by far the most representative of what South Korea faces soon.
But strictly as a monster movie, this is by far one of my favorites. And the reason primarily is because this is one of the coolest monsters ever made. Using the digital work of San Francisco's The Orphanage effects team, this monster moves like a squid in the water, but is more dangerous when dangling from above or on the ground. The way it eats it's victims is not exploitive, like our slasher killers. It's innards work like a snake that swallows it's victims whole.
It bothers me that this movie, which does not have any graphic violence or extreme use of blood, gets an R rating when Ghost Rider allows us to see a man's head disintigrate in much detail down to the skull and gets a PG-13. If this isn't perverse, then please tell me what is. This just goes to show the truly corrupt system put into place by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Director Joon-ho Bong has made a film that was widely recieved in South Korea, and I am truly thankful he was able to export it to American audiances. While this is not a flawless movie (there are scenes that just do not work, and a little too much forshadowing in all the usual spots), it has a vibrancy and a fun about it that makes this a joy to watch. Let's just hope he keeps the Americans from remaking this into a travesty.
All in all, if you like a good-old-fashioned horror movie that gives you the right amount of chills and spills, but also dark comedy with a bit of slapstick, you're not going to find a better movie this season. But there's one thing I need make note, and perhaps you'll have your own interpretation. Does the title refer to the monster that's devouring the country, or the country that's being devoured by the monster. And if it's the latter, what might be the REAL monster?