The Host
Gwoemul
South Korea
2006
119 Min
2 Views
Gwoemul
Synopsis
When a young girl is snatched away from her father by a horrifying giant monster that emerges from the River Han to wreak havoc on Seoul, her entire family sets out to locate the beast and bring their little girl back home to safety in South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s big-budget creature feature. Hee-bong is a man of modest means who runs a snack bar on the banks of the River Han. Along with his slow-witted eldest son, Gang-du; Gang-du’s young daughter, Hyun-seo; archery champion daughter Nam-joo; and unemployed, shirker son, Nam-il, Hee-Bong has managed to maintain a close relationship with his family despite the hardships that come with being a single father. When a rampaging fiend erupts from the Han and throws the city of Seoul into a state of emergency, Gang-du is heartbroken to see his precious little girl scooped up by the scaly creature and spirited away to an unknown destination. This is one family that always sticks together, though, and as the rest of the city denizens scramble to take cover, Hee-bong, Gang-du, Nam-joo, and Nam-il set out to prove that they’re not letting their little girl go without a fight. —allmovie guide
Director
Bong Joon-ho
BONG Joon-ho studied Sociology at the Yonsei University and graduated from the Korean Film Academy. By 1995 he made three short films “Memories in My Frame”, “White Man” and “Incoherence”. He wrote and directed his first feature, < Barking Dogs Never Bite >, which won a Fipresci Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2001. His second feature < Memories of Murder > won the Silver Shell award for the best director in San Sebastian Film Festival in 2003. In 2006 his third feature film, < The Host >, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. —http://london.korean-culture.org/navigator.do?menuCode=200712260008&action=VIEW&seq=15403
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Daniel
30Aug09
Here's a movie that left me speechless. Joon-ho Bong's film is funny, dark, bright and innovative. After 15 minutes, you know that, despite the fact that THE HOST belongs to a very codified genre, the Giant Monster movie, its director is undoubtedly an auteur. The test of the second vision turned out also well for the film. Masterpiece, no doubt about that.
Crap Monster
3Feb09
Nowhere near as memorable as "Memories of Murder" but a great homage to old monster films. I especially like how Bong Joon-ho included overly explicit political commentary and polarization to the point of being campy which was a characteristic prevalent to this specific genre. Its funny though that some audiences took this way too seriously....
Bradley Gardner
28Dec08
This movie got a lot of good reviews from people who enjoy "monster movie with a message" type films. In reality the reviewers seem to have confused Anti-Americanism with a message. Grates on anyone less lazily prejudiced.
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The Auteurs Daily: Toronto and NYFF. Mother
By David Hudson on October 6, 2009
Updated through 10/18.
"After giving free-floating dread a gargantuan, tentacled form in The Host, Bong Joon-ho returns to human-sized monsters in Mother." Fernando F Croce in Slant: "No less than
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Untitled
By Se Young on August 12, 2009
Disregarding the heavy-handed anti-americanism seen in the initial lab scene and the not-so-clever allusions to Agent Orange, Gwoemul is an amazing film about family. Yes it is a monster film and yes… read review
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