The Host

This was another recommendation from Jose.  He told me to check it out.  This is the second Korean cinema piece he’s told me abut and both of them were pretty good.  “Old Boy” was the other one and I really liked that.  This one I liked as well but for different reasons.  I don’t think it’s a very good movie but I can’t help liking it.  It felt like a giant political statement but yet, it was fun.

A doctor is blatantly polluting the Han River and because of the chemicals a giant mutant is born.  It comes up onto land and attacks the people.  An old street vendor is there with his dim-wit son and brilliant grand-daughter.  The monster grabs the grand-daughter and goes back into the river.  The vendor’s other two children arrive (a banker and an Olympic archer) and the family thinks the little girl is dead until they get a call from her cell phone telling them she is alive.  By then the government is involved and has created the cover story of a “virus” that is in the area and locks everyone up.  The family escapes and goes underground to find the girl and fight the monster.  The government is trying to hold their false virus story together so they make the public aware that the family members are dangerous and contagious.  With no help from outsiders the family finds the little girl and they die off one by one trying to save her.  The dim-wit son finally saves her but he is too late as the government has just unleashed a massive chemical agent that kills everyone and everything.  In the end the monster dies but so does every one in the family.

I really don’t want to think too much about what the movie was meant to mean.  With the Korean government and the American military and the secret virus and the death of every major character…  It’s too obvious and you can draw your own conclusions.  I liked the movie based on the mutant monster.  It was a fish that could walk/run on land and had a very limber tail.  The early scenes with the monster dropping from the bridge into the water were really cool as well as the initial rampage where he grabs the girl.  The only other scene that really stood out was when the monster emptied his stomach of all the items he ate but couldn’t digest.  Very gross, very cool.

It wasn’t the greatest thing ever but if you ever saw a “Godzilla” movie you liked, it was definitely worth seeing.

5 of 11 Skulls