MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Host'


Expanding on my PIFF coverage from a few weeks ago....



"The Host" isn't just a terrific monster movie. This South Korean box-office smash is also a laugh-out-loud comedy and a surprisingly angry political satire.

It starts when the U.S. Army dumps hundreds of gallons of toxic formaldehyde in Seoul's Han River. (The officer in charge wants to tidy up the lab, you see.)

Flash-forward to six years later: A giant walking trout-monster -- a literal land-shark -- leaps out of the river in broad daylight … and starts munching on Korean consumers.

The monster was designed by Weta Workshop, which did design work on "Lord of the Rings." And as directed by Bong Joon-ho, the creature attack is one of the best ever staged -- a ballet of mass panic with pulsing music matching the monster's rhythmic gait. It's brilliant, terrifying and weirdly funny.

It also leaves you wondering: Why was the monster fully revealed in the first 10 minutes of the movie?

The answer: because it's a prelude to the real horror -- as "The Host" turns into a satire of government misinformation and corruption that plays like "Godzilla" crossed with "Dr. Strangelove."

After the attack, a dim-bulb single dad named Park Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) gets a cell-phone call from his 13-year-old daughter. The girl was dragged underwater by the monster and presumed dead -- but she's actually hiding in the beast's sewer lair.

It's joyful news: The monster is stupid, the call can be traced, and the Army's already on the scene. But Park can't get government bureaucrats to believe him and mount a rescue.

"She's deceased, but she's not dead!" Park screams. A flunky replies that a cell-phone trace is "not something we do for just anyone." Instead, officials get hung up on the idea that the monster spreads a virus -- and do little more than detain anyone they think might be infected.

Soon, Park enlists his bickering family of losers in a vigilante hunt for the monster. And the movie does an incredible job juggling laughs, suspense, and a deep-seated distrust of bureaucracy.

"The Host" is wildly entertaining; anyone who loves the genre will get their geek buttons pushed hard by this flick. But what makes the movie an instant classic is that it's also, in its dark heart, a furious lampoon. I love how the creature constantly shows up after the appearance of consumer products like money, beer and packaged snacks. One of the funniest and most biting scenes comes early, when an impromptu grief memorial dissolves into pratfalls and wailing, all captured by a huddle of television cameras.

And while the idiocy of the South Korean and American governments is initially played for laughs, it gets less and less funny as the story becomes more and more tragic. "The Host," in its own silly monster-movie way, is actually kind of a call to arms -- demanding that people wake up, take responsibility for their lifestyles and (above all) ask tough questions of their government and mass media. Failure to do so is more destructive than any land-shark.

Land shark of doom (The Oregonian, March 9, 2007)

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Posted: Sun - March 11, 2007 at 12:11 AM        

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