The Host (Gwoemul) Korean Monster Movie

Ranked #4,374 in Entertainment, #48,415 overall

The Host ☆ Gwoemul

The Host (Gwoemul - "Monster"), South Korean monster film - the talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival and the latest film from critically acclaimed visionary director Bong Joon-ho, The host has already garnered a substantial amount of international buzz. Utilizing state-of-the-art special effects, courtesy of a creative partnership between Weta Workshop (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings) and The Orphanage (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sin City), The host is both a creature-feature thrill ride and a poignant human drama.

A rare combination of blockbuster plot and political commentary, the film also deals with the implications of America's military presence in Korea.

Summary


Original title: Gwoemul
International english title: The Host
Country: South Korea
Year: 2006
Genre: Comedy; Drama; Horror; Sci-Fi; Thriller
International MPAA: R (USA)
IMDB Rating: 7
Runtime: 119 min
Production Companies: Chungeorahm Film, Showbox/Mediaplex

Hollywood never made films like The Host

© review by Timothy Sexton

Plot

On 09 February 2000, the American military base of Yongson releases toxic chemicals in the drain to the Han River under the direct order of an arrogant coroner. Six years later, a mutant squid monster leaves the water and attacks people on the side of the river. The teenager Park Hyun-seo is carried by the creature and vanishes in the river. While grieving her loss, her slow father Park Gang-du; her grandfather and owner of a bar-kiosk nearby the river Park Hie-bong; her aunt and archery medalist Park Nam-Joo; and her graduated unemployed uncle Park Nam-il are sent by the army with all the people that had some sort of contact with the monster to quarantine in a facility. During the night, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo telling that she is alive in a big sewage nearby the river. Gang-du tell the militaries but nobody believes on his words, saying that he is delusional due to the shock of his loss. The Park family joins forces trying to find Hyun-seo and rescue her.

Director's chair - good point of view?

Director about the movie

Bong Joon-ho (born in September 14, 1969 in Seoul) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He is a graduate of the Korean Academy of Film Arts. Bong directed multiple critically-acclaimed short films before his feature film debut Barking Dogs Never Bite in 2000. For his 2003 film Memories of Murder, he won the South Korean film industry's Grand Bell Award for best film director. He is probably best known as the director of The Host, South Korea's most successful film of all time (as of May 2007).
Like another Korean director Park Chan-wook, Bong is a partisan of Democratic Labor Party, a minor leftist party in South Korea.

What the young, talented, pleasant, open-faced filmmaker say about his film:

  • When you first think of making a monster movie you have to realize that a lot of people may be down on you because there is a big prejudice against such films, and in Korea, within horror films, movies with sci-fi elements are at the bottom end of that, and even lower within that group are monster films. So before I started making The Host I knew going in that these sorts of attitudes were what I would be facing.

  • From the years of 1979 to 1989, I lived by the Han River. Our apartment building was by the river. From my room, I was able to look down over the river. It was just there, even in my room. When you're in middle school, you do a lot of dumb daydreaming. Sometimes I would just look at the river for hours and that's where the first idea came from. Also, I was a huge fan of the Loch Ness Monster legend. I dreamed of going to Loch Ness. At the time, Loch Ness was too far, so I had to be happy with the Han River. There's nothing mysterious about it. It's so ordinary. So, I always wondered 'What if this ordinary space right before our eyes produced something like Nessie?' It's a combination of a very ordinary location added to a truly sci-fi Nessie-type creature. For a Western audience, it might feel a bit unfamiliar or foreign, but I would like it if they could think of an ordinary location near them. If you're in Chicago, think of the Chicago river. New York, the Hudson. Anything that has as far a distance from sci-fi as possible.

  • I like it when seemingly inharmonious feelings are mixed together. And I think those moments expressed in the films are more realistic. The human emotions in real life are as subtle and complicated as that, and the film is the best medium to catch those emotions. When I choose a certain genre (Memories of Murder was a thriller, The Host was a monster film), I tend to do so because I want to break the conventions of the genre, not because to follow it. Thus, it is inevitable for my films to have a mix of different genres rather than belonging to one category.

  • There was an actual case in Korea where all these fish were found in a polluted river with curved, deformed spines. They were a mutated form. With just the look, I wanted to bring along the history to what had happened to this creature and give hint to origins. And since it's curved, I'm assuming he'd kind of be in pain, so that kind of explains his bad temperament. So, that was the starting point - a fish with a curved spine. But some people think it looks like a tadpole or like a monkfish. Also, there were a lot of aspects dictated by the narrative. For instance, it needed to be able to swallow and then spit out a person, like a pelican. At one point, the design actually reflected a pelican-type beak. It also needed to quickly run across land. So the legs had to be strong and you saw the acrobatics under the bridge. All these points from the narrative had to be interpreted into the physical structure of the body. There were about 500 'monster hopefuls' in the process. Unfortunately, we only needed one.

  • I really hated to wait more than one hour to see just the tip of the monster's tail in other creature films. So I decided to show the monster just 13 minutes after the opening of the film in broad daylight. I did it to break the convention of the film, but also the film's narrative required the early appearance of the monster. There's a kidnapping story and virus story that unfurls after the creature's attack.

  • La Transperceneige is my second next project. Between The Host and La Transperceneige, I am planning to make a small but intense drama film. And if the script is good and if I can have 100 % control over the film, I don't care where I make the film.

Cast

actors on the left side, roles on the right one

Director and writer:
Bong Joon-Ho - director/writer

(Hint: hover on image for cast info, images are also clickable)
Actors and actresses:
Song Kang-Hoas Park Gang-Du  Byeon Hie-Bongas Park Hie-bong  Park Hae-Ilas Park Nam-il
Bae Du-Naas Park Nam-JooKo Ah-Sungas Park Hyun-seo



Others:


David Joseph Anselmo ... Donald
Philip Hersh ... Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Paul Lazar
Clinton Morgan ... Agent Yellow
Dal-su Oh ... Voice of the monster
No-shik Park
Brian Rhee ... Young Korean Doctor (as Brian Lee)
Scott Wilson ... US Doctor in Morgue
Pil-Sung Yim

The Host trailer

powered by Youtube

The Host posters & wallpapers

The Host monster mutations while shooting

monster pictures from The Host movie

The Host movie DVDs and BluRays

at YesAsia store

The Host DVD (US Version) 2-Disc Collector's Edition
cover
* Making of The Host
* Storyboards
* Designing the creature
* Animating the creature
* The Crew production & Visual effects
* Cast Interviews
* Actor training
* Gag reel
* Cast & Crew Goodbye
The Host Blu-ray (US Version) Collector's Edition
cover
Language: English, Korean
Subtitles: English, Spanish
The Host DVD (US Version)
cover
Language: English, Korean
Subtitle: English, Spanish
Special features:
* Deleted scenes
* Director's reflections
* Commentary with director

at Amazon store

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The Host, even more trailers

THE HOST "On Par With Jaws!" Ain't it Cool News NOW ON DVD 0 points

InnoForm Media - The Host Trailer 0 points

The Host Trailer 0 points

The Host movie remake poll

archived

The poll is saved for history. According to Variety commercial video director Fredrik Bond will be making his feature debut behind the camera on The Host remake, working from a script by Mark Poirier.

Loading poll. Please Wait...

The Host, when the movie ends: What was your first impression?

for those of you who have already seen this movie

truly korean movie

unexpectedly, crazy, ironical, amazing, thrilling, emotional3 points

I liked it! It was a welcome change from all the pale

I liked it! It was a welcome change from all the pale, dark haired Japanese type horror movies that have been flooding the screens lately (Grudge, Ring, etc.). Yeah, it could have used more monster, but admit it, the parts it did have with the monster were awesome.2 points

it started off great and then tapered off into suckiness

it started off great and then tapered off into suckiness. the end was ok again but there were too many long silent parts for me. if they were meant to represent something then i missed it. i respect the family bonding aspect but it coulda used a little more monster. not a lot, it didnt have to be a gore fest but just a little more monster. and why wasnt the military trying to kill the monster all those days it was loose?
maybe i the missed the spirit of the movie...0 points

P.S.

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This lens was last edited on January 15 2012, by asiacue.
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The Host HD DVD 

The Host [HD DVD]

Amazon Price: $30.86 (as of 02/15/2012)Buy Now

- Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language: English, Korean
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Region: All Regions

Two Disc Collectors Edition 

The Host (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Amazon Price: $4.99 (as of 02/15/2012)Buy Now

- Anamorphic, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Bonus
- Language: Korean, English, Spanish
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Region: US and Canada only

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