REVIEW: The Host (Gwoemul)

Mar - 08 | By: Josh Nelson | no comments.

Taking its cue from both the movies of the 1950s (Them!, Gojira, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms) and the revisionist monster films (Aliens, Lake Placid) Bong Joon-Ho’s Gwoemul has already become the highest ever grossing film in South Korea. What stands the film apart from other recent big budget Hollywood outings such as King Kong, and Godzilla is that here such is popularity is justly deserved.

Opening with the dumping of toxic chemicals from a U.S. military base into the Han River, the film wastes little time in revealing the ‘monstrous’ result of those actions. When the monster does emerge, it brings its appetite. Tearing through scores of people along the riverbank, the creature, best described as a large angry amorphous amphibian wreaks instant havoc. Among the victims is Hyun-Seo, the young daughter of Gang-Du who lives and works in a riverside canteen with his aging father, and sister, an Olympic archer. Rounded up by authorities fearing a viral contamination, Dang-Du, insisting that his daughter has survived the attack, engineers his family’s escape to go in search of her, and the monster.

Gwoemul’s success is not difficult to account for. Not only does the film look superb, (the monster is a rare example of artful CGI), but the central characters are so likeable, that it’s hard not to feel drawn in emotionally by Dang-Du’s desperate hunt for Hyun-Seo. But while Gwoemul works well as a dynamic ‘monster film’ it is at the same time a highly political work. Lurking beneath the narrative, in the chemical dumping, government cover-up, media spin, unlawful detentions, and the U.S. developed “Agent Yellow” an insecticide designed to kill off the beast, is a deliciously satiric anti-authoritarian sentiment. It’s also one of the best films of the year.