The Host (film)
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| The Host (괴물) | |
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|---|---|
| Directed by | Bong Joon-ho |
| Produced by | Yong-Bae Choi |
| Written by | Baek Chul-hyun Bong Joon-ho |
| Starring | Song Kang-ho Byeon Hee-bong Park Hae-il Bae Doona Ko Ah-seong |
| Music by | Byeong Woo Lee |
| Release date(s) | July 27, 2006 (South Korea) November 10, 2006 (UK) March 9, 2007 (US) |
| Running time | 119 min. |
| Language | Korean |
| Budget | US$ 10,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul: | 괴물 |
| Hanja: | 怪物 |
| Revised Romanization: | Gwoemul |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Koemul |
The Host (괴물, Gwoemul) is a 2006 South Korean monster film, which also contains elements of comedy and drama films. The film was directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay, along with Baek Chul-hyun. Starring in the film as members of an unremarkable family thrust into the middle of extraordinary events were Song Kang-ho, Byeon Hee-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Doona and Ko Ah-seong.
Following the success of the director's previous work, Memories of Murder, The Host was heavily anticipated and hyped. It was released on a record number of screens in its home country on July 27, 2006 and broke box-office records throughout its domestic run. By the end of its run on November 8, the film had been seen over 13 million times, making it the highest grossing South Korean film of all time, beating the previous leader The King and the Clown, which had attracted 12.3 million people.
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[edit] Plot
The movie opens with an American military pathologist commanding a Korean assistant to dispose of formaldehyde down the drain.
The plot shifts to the present, focusing on a small family. Park Gang-du is a slow-witted man who runs a snack-bar with his father, Hee-bong. Hyun-seo is Gang-du's only daughter, a schoolgirl. Nam-joo is Gang-du's sister, and a national medalist archer. Nam-il is Gang-du's brother, an alcoholic who has not made much of himself since graduating from college.
Gang-du is sent to serve a customer and notices that a crowd has gathered along the edge of the Han River, pointing at something hanging off the Wonhyo Bridge. This turns out to be a large creature that drops into the water. The crowd throw food into the river, trying to feed it, but as the creature emerges, it attacks and devours people whole. Gang-du and an American man try to combat the creature. As Gang-du runs away from the monster, he sees Hyun-seo, recently emerged from the snack bar, unaware of the danger. Gang-du grabs her hand and tries to lead her to safety, but stumbles and grabs the hand of another girl instead. Realizing his error too late, he sees the monster grab Hyun-seo and drag her into the river.
The family grieves at the loss of the young girl. Nam-il blames Gang-du for Hyun-seo's death. Government representatives in biohazard suits arrive and demand to know who has had direct contact with the creature, to which Gang-du raises his hand. The family is dragged away to a hospital for quarantine. The Korean government announces that the monster is not only a direct risk, but also the host of a virus. While quarantined at the hospital, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo, who is not dead, but trapped in a sewer. She is cut off as the cell phone battery runs out. No-one believes Gang-du except his family. They escape the hospital, determined to rescue Hyun-seo. In a confrontation with the creature, Hee-bong is killed. Gang-du is captured by soldiers, and Nam-il and Nam-joo separate.
Nam-il goes to a former college friend for help, and is able to trace Hyun-seo's phone call. He is betrayed and barely escapes capture. He manages to send a text message to Nam-joo with the information. Nam-joo meets the creature outside its lair, but she is knocked unconscious. Gang-du, trapped in the hospital, overhears that there is no virus, but the government is going through the motions anyway to save face (including attempting to extract Gang-du's brain to perform tests on it). After they take a sample of his brain tissue, he takes a hostage and escapes from the hospital.
Meanwhile, Hyun-seo survives in the sewer by hiding in a pipe, but she cannot escape. The creature drops the bodies of its victims nearby, saving them for later. Hyun-seo finds them dead or mortally wounded, except for one young orphan boy. She devises a plan to climb out of the sewer using the victims' clothes as a rope. The plan fails and the creature swallows the two children.
Gang-du arrives and realizes that his daughter is inside the beast. He chases it as it swims into the river. The three siblings converge on the monster, just as it is coming up on the riverbank where demonstrators are gathering to protest the use of Agent Yellow, a chemical that will be released by the government in order to combat the fictional virus. Chaos ensues as the creature comes on shore and is shot at. Agent Yellow is released, and it causes the creature to collapse temporarily. Gang-du manages to open its jaws and pull out the bodies of the two children. The creature then revives and tries to return to the river. Nam-il throws molotov cocktails at the creature, but none of them strike it. Then the homeless man who arrived with Nam-il pours gasoline on it and Nam-joo shoots a flaming arrow into its eye, setting it on fire. The creature runs towards the river, but Gang-du blocks its way, impaling it on a broken street sign.
[edit] Cast
- Park Hee-bong - Byeon Hee-bong
- Park Gang-du - Song Kang-ho
- Park Nam-il - Park Hae-il
- Park Nam-joo - Bae Doona
- Park Hyun-seo - Ko Ah-seong
[edit] Production
[edit] Background
The film was the third feature-length film directed by Bong Joon-ho. Following the positive reaction to the director's debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite, coupled with the critical acclaim and box-office success of his previous work, Memories of Murder, the film was given a generous production budget of around 10 billion won[1] (just over $10 million US), huge by local industry standards.[2]
[edit] Special effects
While the budget was among the largest ever in a South Korean production, by international standards it was more modest. The director had to work around the budget-imposed restrictions, especially when it came to special effects. The creature itself was designed by Chin Wei-chen, the modeling was done by New Zealand-based Weta Workshop and the animatronics were by John Cox's creature Workshop.[3] The CGI for the film was done by Orphanage, which also did the CGI of The Day After Tomorrow.[4]
The monster was designed with some specific parameters in mind. The director's wishes were for it to look like an actual mutated fish-like creature, rather than have a more fantastical design. The monster also needed to be able to run and perform certain acrobatic movements during the film.[3] For a genre film monster, the creature's size is rather small, only about the size of a truck. Also unlike in many other monster-themed films, the creature is fully visible from early on in the film, sometimes for large stretches of time and even in broad daylight, which earned the film some critical praise.[5]
[edit] Political background
The film was in part inspired by an incident in 2000 in which a mortician working for the U.S. military in Seoul dumped a large amount of formaldehyde down the drain. In addition to its environmental impact, this has added some antagonism against the United States.[6] The American military situated in South Korea is portrayed as uncaring about the effects their activities have on the locals. The chemical agent used by the American military to combat the monster in the end, named "Agent Yellow" in a thinly veiled reference to Agent Orange was also used to satirical effect.[3]
The director, Bong Joon-ho, commented on the issue: "It's a stretch to simplify The Host as an anti-American film, but there is certainly a metaphor and political commentary about the U.S."[7]
According to Bong Joon-ho, the Park Nam-il character is a deliberate anachronism, a reference to South Korea's troubled political history, which involved violent protest. "When you look in terms of this character, it's sort of like the feeling of time going backwards. [...] You could say that he is the image of the college protester back ten years ago; it doesn't exist in the present day."[8]
Because of its themes that can be seen as critical of the United States, the film was actually lauded by North Korean authorities,[9] a rarity for a South Korean blockbuster film.
The film also features a satiric portrayal of the South Korean government which is portrayed as bureaucratic, inept, and essentially uncaring.
[edit] Reception
The Host premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2006 and was released nationally in South Korea on July 27, 2006. Having been heavily hyped and featuring one of the most popular leading actors in the country, Song Kang-ho, the film was released on a record number of screens and made the South Korean record books with its box office performance during its opening weekend. The 2.63 million admissions and $17.2 million box office revenue easily beat the previous records set by Typhoon.[10][11] The film continued its success and exceeded 6 million viewers on the morning of August 6, 2006.[12] In early September the film became South Korea's all time box office leader, selling more than 12.3 million tickets in just over a month in a country of 48.5 million. By the end of its run on November 8, the viewing figures came in at 13,019,740.[2]
The film was released theatrically in Australia on August 17, 2006. During the first half of September, 2006, it premiered in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong. It received a theatrical release in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2006. This was its first official release outside of film festivals, and outside Asia and Australia. Its American release was March 9, 2007. It was or is planned to be released in several other countries; among them are France, Sweden, Germany, and Spain.
The Host received screenings on several film festivals. In addition to its opening in Cannes, among the most prominent were the Toronto, Tokyo and New York film festivals. The film swept Korea's Blue Dragon Awards : The Host received 5 awards, Go Ah-Sung took Best New Actress and Byeon Hee-bong was awarded as Best Supporting Actor. [13]
The French film magazine Cahiers du cinema ranked the film as 3rd place in its list of best films of the year 2006.[14] The Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo selected it as one of the top 10 best foreign films of the year 2006.[15].
With a limited American release starting March 11, 2007, The Host garnered very positive reviews, with a 92% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[16]. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that "The Host is a loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within." And Howard Waldrop and Lawrence Person of Locus Online called it "the best monster movie since Tremors."[17]
[edit] Trivia
- A non-Korean actor in the movie, Clinton Morgan, was deported from Korea for violating Article 20 of Korea's immigration law, that foreigners may not engage in activities other than those specified in one's sojourn status.[18]
- Filming took place in the real sewers near the Han River, rather than on a set. The stars and crew were told they were being inoculated against Tetanus by the medical officer, though the injections also included inoculation against blood-sucking tapeworms that inhabit the sewers. During filming, the crew had to deal with the effects of changes in weather and ambient temperature. This including the sewage water freezing in cold temperatures, so that it had to be broken up and melted; and during hot and windy periods, the water evaporated and the silt turned to dust, which blew around in the breeze and into the faces of the crew. [19]
[edit] DVD Release
The Region 2 UK Release of the film was released on the 5th March 2007.
[edit] References
- ^ Bong Joon-Ho Talks 괴물 (The Host). twitchfilm.net (2006-07-26). Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ a b Korean movie reviews for 2006 at koreanfilm.org, retrieved on January 12, 2007
- ^ a b c Scott Weinberg (2006-09-13). TIFF Interview: The Host Director Bong Joon-ho. cinematical.com. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ Barbara Robertson (2006-07-27). Oh Strange Horrors!. CGSociety. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ Adam Nayman. The Host ...With the Most. reverseshot.com. Retrieved on January 13, 2007.
- ^ Jon Herskovitz (2006-09-07). South Korean movie monster gobbles up box office. Reuters. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
- ^ Heejin Koo (2006-09-07). Korean filmmakers take center stage to bash trade talks. Bloomberg news. Retrieved on January 13, 2007.
- ^ The Host: Monstrous Political Satire. Hollywood Gothique Daily Journal (2007-03-07). Retrieved on January 13, 2007.
- ^ North Korea lauds S. Korean movie 'The Host' for anti-American stance. Yonhap news (2006-11-16). Retrieved on January 13, 2007.
- ^ Mark Schilling, Darcy Paquet (2006-07-31). 'Host' with the most. Variety.com. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ "The Host" Stomps to Multiple Box Office Records. The Chosun Ilbo online (2006-07-31). Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ Kim Tae-jong (2006-08-06). 'Host' Breaks 6-Million-Viewer Mark. Korea Times (online edition). Retrieved on August 7, 2006.
- ^ The 27th Blue Dragon Awards on the site koreasociety.org See also [1]
- ^ Palmarès 2006 at cahiersducinema.com, retrieved on January 12, 2007
- ^ Yang Sung-jin (2007-01-16). Director hosts new standard. Brunei Times. Retrieved on January 16, 2007.
- ^ Rottentomatoes.com, retrieved March 26, 2007
- ^ Howard Waldrop & Lawrence Person, movie review of The Host, Locus Online, March 26, 2007
- ^ ‘괴물’ 출연 외국인 2명 강제추방. Naver.com (2006-10-05). Retrieved on January 12, 2007.(Korean)
- ^ The Host DVD (additional features) [DVD]. Optimum Home Entertainment.
[edit] External links
- The Host Official Site (Korean)
- The Host Official Site (USA)
- [2] Monster Hunters Club
- 'Hosting The Host': Bong Joon-Ho in NYC
- The Host at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- The Host LoveAsianFilm.com
- The Korea Times "USFK Employee Gets Suspended Prison Term for Toxic Dumping"
- Reuters "South Korean movie monster gobbles up box office"
- VFX World "The Host: Creepie Korean Creatures" - The creation of the creature
- The Host at Rotten Tomatoes
- 2007 SuicideGirls interview with The Host director Joon-ho Bong by Daniel Robert Epstein
- Film trailer featuring the song "Monster" by The Automatic
