The Host (2006)

 

100 Best Science Fiction Films, Slant Magazine List

 

#71. The Host (2006)

 

"Have you ever smelled it? The stomach of a parent who's lost a child... Once it goes rotten, the smell can travel for miles..."

--- Park Hee-bong (played by Byun Hee-Bong)

 

 

This is a perfectly straight-forward Monster Movie in the Kaiju tradition (the word translates from Japanese as “Strange Beast” and is now internationally applied to Giant Monsters) that manages to be a multi-layered Drama as well. The threat of the Monster is the springboard for the examination of a dysfunctional family, because a child is missing, and that family must reunite to rescue her since no one else will.

 

The Family Drama then becomes a lever to lift up a slab of pavement and expose a Political rot beneath, the toxicity in the relationship between the USA and South Korea. Co-Writer/Director Bong Joon-ho passionately vents his resentments about S Korea’s dependance on a Foreign Power is both self-interested and largely indifferent. For all its anti-USA sentiments, the more powerful impression is a sadness that S Korea seems incapable of taking care of itself, so that corrupting dependence seems largely self-inflicted.

 

This film is accessible to all but also powerfully context-driven, referencing many things every S Korean knows, so it need not be explained, but going right over-the-head of most of the International audience. Much of the Korean peninsula’s recorded history has been one of invasion, colonization, and exploitation by more powerful Nations. After World War II, it was divided, and by the early 1950s, the USA became S Korea’s most stalwart guardian against one very specific threat, the Kim Dynasty of Communist N Korea, but we’ve also long proved to be wholly indifferent to our consequences on any other front. Starting in 1961, we enabled a Military Dictatorship to rule S Korea that brutally suppressed Democratic Idealists, but that Dictatorship also began an Economic Expansion in the largely backwards Nation.

 

S Korea had tried Democracy repeatedly but only achieved a stable-seeming one in 1988, and this led to a string of Liberal Presidents committed to reasserting the Nation’s Sovereignty against deals made with the USA (this push back changed little of S Korea's dependency on the USA) before almost half its current Citizens were born. The already-on-going Economic Improvements became a breath-taking Boom soon after the restoration of Democracy, and the S Korea’s increasingly restlessness about the uneven relationship became increasingly visible in their media after 1999.

 

In the film, the USA Government is ambiguous and sinisterly effective, while the S Korea government is a hapless bunch of jerks. N Korea isn’t mentioned at all, but then it didn’t need to be, it was made in S Korea by S Koreans for S Koreans. Critic Adam Nayman wrote, “The testament to Bong’s artistry is that he’s made a film that’s impossible to misread and yet doesn’t seem to be spoon-feeding you.”

 

Still, as I am speaking to a Western audience, so allow me to spoon-feed you a lot that Bong didn’t feel the need to spell out in long expositions.

 

Its setting is the Capital City of Seoul, specifically the banks of the Han River, which is as important to S Korea’s sense of National Identity as the Hudson or Mississippi Rivers are for the USA. During Korea’s multi-Generational period of Colonial Exploitation, the River it was considered a Monster itself, eating up a full third of the nation’s economy and periodically unleashing deadly and disastrous floods.

 

After the end of WWII and the separation, and during the Military Dictatorship, the Han was tamed, its gravel and sand building the modern version of the City around it; this became known as “The Miracle on the Han River,” allowing S Korea to excel as N Korea floundered and became increasingly insane. The pollution of the Han is also a favorite metaphor when N Korea’s Kim Dynasty of Dictators went on their Racist, Anti-Western rants.

 

But according to Critic Anthony Ko, “han” is also word that is “notoriously difficult to translate …amorphous sociological concept that denotes a uniquely Korean feeling of shared injustice, and the collective misery that stems from it,” but he also argues it’s the word for perseverance against that same misery.  As Korean/Canadian (born is Seoul) Hip-Hop Artist Tablo sang in “Hood” 2015):

 

“Han is the name we gave to struggle and pain/This river runs through our city like it runs through our veins.”

 

In 1987, when Director Bong was a Junior in High School, he lived in Chamshil, near the river. Looking out the window, he saw what he was sure was a Sea Monster rising out of it, and when this film started peculating in his head. While in College, he joined the pro-Democracy Protests and was abused by police.

 

In 2000, after Democracy was reestablished, there was a huge scandal when a Civilian Official of the US Army, Albert L. McFarland, ordered the disposal of 196 bottles of a formaldehyde mixture into the Han River. The timing of the incident contributed to the size of the scandal. The President of S Korea at the time was Kim Dae-jung, a survivor of an Assassination attempt, a Kidnapping, a Death Sentence, and repeated Political Imprisonments and Exiles during the years of Military Dictatorship, then the winner of the Nobel Pease Prize and he was set to meet with N Korea’s Dictator Kim Jong-Il as part of Kim Dae-jung’s “Sunshine Policy,” an attempt to normalize relations between the two Nations.

 

McFarland was criminally prosecuted by the S Koreans, but in-absentia because the USA doesn’t allow its Military personnel to be tried in S Korean Courts. After trail and appeals wore-out, (more than six-years, so long after the release of this film) MacFarland received a one-year suspended sentence that the USA doesn’t not recognize. The USA Government did discipline MacFarland with a thirty-day suspension without pay, but shockingly, he kept his job. The likely reason for this was because he had mostly followed established procedure, in other words, it wasn’t his individual mistake, the USA Military was casually encourages the pollution of waterways globally.

 

In the film, after so many Civilians are killed that a mass-funeral is required (Bong lingers on that scene like no other Monster Movie filmmaker would) the S Korean Authorities help no one, only parrot lies fed to them by their USA Overlords. At the time of the film’s release, the S Korean President was Roh Moo-hyun, an opponent of the Policy of “Operation Control” which allowed the USA to take command S Korean Military in case of war with N Korea. Roh was another former Democracy Protestor from the years of Military Dictatorship and saw this Policy as an afront to S Korea’s Sovereignty. Roh was too young to have clear memories of the Korean War of the 1950s and S Korea’s Military then now far more substantial (because of USA support) than it was when the Policy was established.

 

There’re also false stories planted in the press of a fictional Virus used as an excuse to round up the usual suspects and S Korea seemed to be slipping back into Military Dictatorship. At the time of the film’s release, the USA occupation of Iraq was going badly and it was already known that the Invasion’s pretext, that Saddam Hussein was stock-piling Weapons of Mass Destruction, was false.

 

After the film’s release, the State-controlled N Korean press offered unusual praise for the film, this almost never happened in relation to a S Korean cinema. They did partly because of the cold-eye it cast on the USA and S Korean Governments, partly because of the “Sunshine Policy” half-obligated it. But N Korea would then start sinking the Sunshine that very year by engaging in Nuclear Blackmail, and darken the sky to black by 2008, but there has been moves to have the sun rise again since 2017.

 

In this film, a fictional version of McFarland (Scott Wilson) commits the act of polluting in the very first scene and afterwards is never seen again. In classic Monster Movie fashion, the pollution creates a giant Mutant, not quite as big as “Godzilla” (1954 and itself a metaphor for the USA’s A-Bomb) but realized with far more convincing FX.

 

The family at the center of this is the Parks, and the lead Character among these Characters of near-equal importance is Gang-du (Song Kang-ho), who works as a vendor at his father’s, Hee-bong’s (Byun Hee-bong), riverside kiosk. Gang-du is a moderately developmentally disabled, pudgy, clumsy, and lazy, but also tremendously appealing because he’s sad-sack-funny and devoted to his twelve-year-old Daughter Hyun-seo (Park Hae-il), Hee-bong’s only Grandchild. Hyun-seo is far more intelligent and mature than her dad. The girl’s Mom has long run out on her, but she’s the apple of everyone else’s eye.

 

During the Monster’s first attack, Nam-il grabbed by it, setting the main plot in motion. Even captive, the pre-teen girl proves to have some internal fortitude as she protects and even younger child, homeless orphan Se-joo (Lee Dong-ho) from the ravenous Beast.

 

Gang-dong and Hee-bong are joined by Gang-dong’s brother Nam-il (Park Hae il), the family’s only University graduate, but unable to find employ because the legal troubles he got into during the Protests more than a decade prior, so all he does now is drink too much and complain about life being unfair. Also, their sister, Nam-ioo (Bae Doona) who presents herself as being the rock of the family, but poorly disguises her issues with panic. She’s ashamed of the lot of them except her Niece and helpfully is a completive archer, so the only family member with any weapon-skills. S Korea has mandatory Military Service for all young men, but both Park sons are hopeless on that front anyway.

 

The film cost ₩11.8 billion, or $11.2 million USD, so modestly budgeted by USA standards, but huge in S Korea. It looks better than most USA Monster Movies that cost five times as much (it released the same year as “Silent Hill” ($5 million)). For the Monster itself, Bong had to reach-out overseas to get the CGI expertise (the final product was based on sketches by S Korean Jang Hee-Cheol, but realized in 3D animation by USA FX firm Orphanage) and it cost a full 36% of the budget.

 

The Monster is highly aggressive and wonderfully Chimera in design: It’s about the size of a bus, mostly fish-like, but with an abundance of legs, the hind legs so strong it is almost bi-pedal, plus has tentacles, fangs, talons, a prehensile tail, slobbers a lot, and moves with the disgusting grace of a scurrying rat. It convincingly leaps from one side of the river to the other and climbs up a bridge tower blindingly fast. Though much of the film is set in darkened sewers, the Monster’s first appearance is in broad daylight, and though they camera seems unable to keep up with its speed (nice illusion) it’s mostly unobscured and center-frame.

 

That spectacular scene featured one of the only USA characters who even gets screen-time and the only likable one among them. Sgt. Donald Wilson (David Joseph Anselmo) is young, handsome, and virile. When the Monster first rises from the river, he heroically defends the innocents on shore. His reward for this is to get squashed by a bug about five minutes after his Character is introduced. Right in front of Gang-dong, just to make it very clear to slow and pudgy Gang-dong how much trouble he’s in.

 

The film also airs common discontents about how S Korea’s Economic Success is rife with inequalities. The Park family is economically marginal, and Heroism is also shown by the homeless. Experts are unavailable and successful Salarymen are jerks.

 

This film was a huge risk because though Koreans love the Horror Genre, Monster Movies don’t have a happy history there. S Korea’s first Kaiju was the “Godzilla”-influenced “Bulgasari” (1962); it was also broadly hated and no one bothered to preserve any prints. Then in 1978 N Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Il Kidnapped S Korean Director Shin Sang-ok and his wife while they vacationed in Hong-Kong and held them in Prison until Shin agreed to make movies to improve N Korea’s standing in the International Film Community (I’m not making that up). Shin made seven films for Kim Jong-il before escaping to the USA (aided by an FX team from Japan who’d worked on the “Godzilla” franchise). His last for N Korea was a remake “Bulgasari” called “Pulgasari” (1985) which, amusingly, concerned a Kaiju guided by the vengeful spirit of a man wrongfully imprisoned man and taking revenge of a brutal Dictator during Korea’s Koryo Dynasty (918 to 1391 AD). It was five-years after Shin’s escape that any Foreign Distributor touched the thing, another five-years before it was shown in S Korea, and no one seemed too impressed with it.

 

But Director Bong’s risk paid off, “The Host” was that year’s biggest grosser Domestically and an International hit without being dubbing for, or explaining to, Western audiences.

 

Like a lot of Directors, Bong uses the same people over-and-over. Here he employed most of the people from his breakthrough film, “Memories of Murder” (2003): Cinematographer Kim Hyung-Goo, Lighting Director Lee Gang-San, Art Director Ryu Sung-Hee, Actors Song, Byun, Park, as well as several not mentioned above, Song Kang-Ho, Park Hae-Il, Kim Roi-Ha. Some of these collaborated with Bong on his earlier “Barking Dogs Never Bite” (2000) and from that Cast Bong re-recruited Park No-Shik, Bae Doo-Na and Go Soo-Hee.

 

This is probably the backbone of Bong most consistent and greatest accomplishment; in a single film he shows he can wildly shift in tone and Genre without ever leaving his audience behind. When he crosses the boundaries between Drama, broad Comedy, scary Monsters, and Political Statements, his focus is always on his flawlessly realized Characters, often written with the specific Actors in mind.

 

Bong has probably the greatest International reputation of any Korean filmmaker (he won a Best Picture Oscar for “Parasite” (2019), which was first Foreign Language film ever to do so and, again, carried over familiar Cast and Crew members). In Korea, there are hotly-debated rules regarding how many days a year its Cinemas are require to show Domestic films because they are generally squashed by Hollywood Blockbuster competition, earlier in his carrier Bong’s films benefited this, now he has transcended that need. Bong’s influences are diverse, most distinctly Korean, but also an obvious student of Steven Spielberg, and this film references two Spielberg’s specifically both thematically and visually, “Jaws” (1975) and “War of the Worlds (2005).

 

“War of the …” offers the most instructive comparison because of a badly fumbled tonal shift by Spielberg at the end of the film. After a family fought horrific Monsters throughout, suffering and watching innocents slaughtered, Spielberg offered and all-too-happy ending. Bong gives our Heroes victory, but the Parks also pay an unspeakably high price for their Heroism. It’s also clear that the price of Cowardness would’ve been much higher still.

 

This film is “han.”

 

Trailer:

The Host (2006) – Trailer - YouTube