The streaming platform Amazon Prime Video has recently included in its catalog one of the most outstanding monster movies of this century, the wonderful ‘The Host’written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. The Oscar-winning author of ‘Parasitos’ surprised locals and strangers back in 2006 with this fantastic film that It burst the box office in all the cinemas in South Korea. and became, at the time, the highest grossing film in the country in all its history. Haven’t you seen it yet?
Bong Joon-ho se consagr con ‘The Host’the film of a monstrous creature that comes out of the river in Seoul
To this day Bong Joon-ho is one of the most recognized South Korean directors in the worldespecially after having conquered the Hollywood Academy in 2019 with ‘Parasitos’. However, at the beginning of this century the filmmaker was still a figure beginning to emerge in his native country. After having debuted with a modest film like ‘Barking dog, little biter’ (2000) and earn the admiration of critics with his masterpiece ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003), his next step was aimed at world starry. Y ‘The Host’ I succeeded in spades.
Titled in Korean as ‘awful’ (literal translation of “Monster”), this 2006 film already monopolized from its promotion the attention of manyWell, as we said, Joon-ho came from having very positive reactions with his two previous productions. For this reason, the director received a generous budget for country standards that enabled him to carry out his vision on the quirky story which is told to us in ‘The Host’.
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“The inhabitants of Seoul observe a strange object that hangs from a bridge over the Han River. It is, in fact, a monstrous mutant creature that devours whoever crosses its path.”
In the movie synopsis that offers us the Amazon Prime Video listing we can read the following: “The inhabitants of Seoul observe a strange object that hangs from a bridge over the Han River. It is, in reality, a monstrous mutant creature that devours whoever crosses its path. In the midst of the horror, the creature kidnaps the daughter of a kiosk owner. As the army fails to destroy the monster, this anonymous man tries to get his daughter back.”.
Bong Joon-nothing inspired in part for your movie in a real event happened in the year 2000. Although luckily no mutant creatures were recorded leaving the Han River, a funeral home worker informed the authorities that the United States military had killed him. ordered to dump a large amount of formaldehyde waste into the river, a highly flammable and volatile chemical compound. This news generated quite a stir in the country and provoked a certain suspicion towards the United States; a premise with which Joon-ho himself opens the film.
On the other hand, the design of the monster was inspired by a local article which mentioned a deformed fish with an S-shaped spine that had been found in the Han River. The creature, which was recreated for the film by CGI by The Orphanage (in charge of special effects in other films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire o The day after tomorrow), still looks impressive to this day and is shown for much of the footage without consideration and even in broad daylight, something unusual in the genre.
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‘The Host’ is on its own merits one of the most significant monster movies of this century.
To round out the work, the actor Song Kang-ho (a regular in Bong Joon-ho’s career) leads the cast as the dim-witted father and householder who will do anything in his power to win back his daughter, played by Go Ah-sung. ‘The Host’ is by its own merits one of the monster movies significant ms of this century, a surprising, unpredictable work, with a important criticism and political satire in the background and, not least, tremendously entertaining.
As we pointed out at the beginning, ‘The Host’ was the ultimate catapult for Bong Joon-ho to world fame. the movie I broke all the records in Asia, win the Blue Dragon Awards in Korea and sell more than 12.3 million entries in South Korea in just over a month since its premiere. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should give it a try.
