Fantastic Film Festival Movie Review
The Host

Awesome. F-ing awesome. I had pretty high expectations going in from what i heard by word of mouth from the first screening and I also knew Joon-ho Bong was a talented director from his previous movie Memories of Murder which is highly underrated. It surpassed my expectations and was very different than what i expected it to be. I would classify it as a comedy/action/drama/horror movie. The closest movie i can think of with a similar type of tone is the black comedy Save the Green Planet. The Host was primarily a comedy and action movie overall. The comedic moments were great and only a few of them felt a little flat. As far as action the movie was loaded with the monster swimming, jumping, swinging, running, chasing and eating Koreans. The cgi was awesome and a lot better than what i was expecting. I wasnt expecting the monster to be loose in the city and in broad daylight. I thought it was going to be hidden and only shown in night scenes like most horror movies. Since it was in broad daylight and not very gory i dont really classify it as horror. There was some blood and in one scene there is an unloading of bones of eaten people but overall not really scary. It had a few cool jump scares and it built up the tension of the monster chasing after them very effectively. The bulk of the monster itself not counting the tail was about the size of a large van. The monster's look and effects reminded me a lot like the creatures effects used in Hellboy.

The movie starts off at a U.S. military base in S. Korea and they are dumping chemicals into the river by way of the sink. Then it shows a brief scene where a man thats committing suicide from a bridge sees the monster in the water right before he jumps. Then it fast forwards 6 years later to a park by the Han river where this grandpa and son are running a snack stand. The Dad who is the central character is a lazy bum who sleeps all day and lets his daughter drink beer with him. Within the first 15 minutes of the movie the monster attacks the park and kills several people. This scene was awesome. The monsters first appearance set the tone for the rest of the movie.The Dad and an American soldier try to battle it for a short time before it goes running off trying to eat more people. The scene ends with the monster grabbing the little daughter with its tail as in the above picture and jumping into the water to escape. They see the daughter being swallowed on the other shore and assumed shes dead. The government quarantines everyone along with the Dad, the Grandpa, the Brother and Sister. The government claims there is a new virus that the monster was the Host of and all people that were there that day had to be detained. The Dad gets a call from his daughter in the middle of the night. Apparently she is still alive and not eaten but spit out. Then it shows the monster doesnt eat everyone right away but rather takes them to a sewer hole and drops them in and then comes back later to feed. So the girl is still alive and lives in a crack thats in one of the walls.

Without giving away too much the family escapes the quarantine and they go on a mission to find the girl before shes eaten or starves to death. The interaction between the family members have a lot of classic funny moments, especially between the Dad and his Brother. At this point of the movie i was smiling ear to ear at what i had seen so far. I was just hoping the finale wasnt going to be a letdown or bring down the movie. At first i thought i knew what was going to happen but fortunately they went a different direction and the finale was awesome too.

Oh yeah i forgot the movie pokes fun at US policies and the role we play in other countries affairs. I didnt mind it and probably would be true if this certain scenario were to be ever carried out.

What more can i say. It was my favorite movie of the festival by far. It exceeded my expectations. You probably can count on your hand all the decent monster movies thats been made in the past few years. The acting was great, the cinemotography and directions were top notch. The cgi was awesome and the movie had a little bit for everyone. Funny, exciting, dramatic and a little scary all rolled up on one movie. Very few movies can pull this off effectively. This is not some cheesy Hollywood junk or some straight to video garbage this is an authentic great movie that im sure will be in my top 5 for the end of the year. Its suppose to be out in theaters in January and im sure it will be on dvd in region 2 or 3 pretty soon. Dont hesitate and go and see this masterpiece first chance you get.

Heres the trailer