The Host

B+

Directed by Joon Ho Bong

Korean's are the best in the world at two things film related: Romantic comedies and genre mish-mashes. Indeed, as good as they are at rolling out the Rom Coms, Koreans are also excellent at deftly mixing seemingly incompatible genres into coherent wholes. Joon Ho Bong's mega hit "The Host" is one of the best (and most succesful) examples of such a film, a movie that mixes elements of comedy, family drama, horror, and of course, the monster movie, into an appealing cocktail that is both sleak and entertaining.

Kang Ho Sung plays Park Gang Du, a hapless slacker who lives his daughter, Hyun Soe, father, and sister on the bank of Seoul's Han River where they run a small snack stand. Their peaceful existence is shattered one fine, sunny, afternoon when a monster suddenly emerges from the depths of the Han and begins feasting on innocent bystanders. Hu Sung attempts to flee the beast with his duaghter but Hyun Soe is viciously snapped up by sea monster and dragged into the depths of the Han. The surviving members of the Park family, crushed by the loss of young Hyun Soe, are taken into government custody for examination due to their proximity to the beast. A glimmer of hope appears, however, when Hyun Soe calls her father with a muffled cry for help before quickly being cut off. Gang Du and his family decide to flee government custody and set off to find Hyun Soe, and thus a gigantic search and rescue effort, coupled with a related search and punish effort headed by the Korean government towards the Park family, gets underway.

"The Host" was a massive hit in Korea and made some significant inroads at box offices around the globe, a testament to its wide appeal and undeniable success as a wildly entertaining sci-fi flick. The less than credible action is rendered as believable as possible by top notch CGI and the monster, who is often on screen cavorting around the Han's bank, looks surprisingly realistic so much so that the next time I take a stroll by the river I'm going to remain extra cautious. "The Host" is far more than a simple monster flick, however, and works equally well as a light comedy and also as a refreshingly cynicism free story about the closeness of family bonds. Gang Du's redemption in the eyes of his family members as they see him fight to find his daughter, and their subsequent efforts to help him in his search, are sweet and earnest and ultimately heart warming rather than cringe inducing.
It is worth noting, and commending, that "The Host" sets itself apart from many other films by allowing its characters to actually be killed and stay dead rather than offering them miraculous medical recoveries or causing them to somehow cheat a certain death. It's rather rare these days to run across a film that wants to warm the hearts of its audience but still has the guts to kill off some of their favorite characters in front of their eyes. For that, kudos to "The Host!"

The danger with compulsively enjoyable films such as "The Host" is that they are oftentimes instantly forgettable as well due to the absence of any deeper material to chew on after the film is over. "The Host" certainly suffers at least to some degree from the superficiality of its premise but asking anything more from a film like "The Host" than pure entertainment is probably getting greedy. Despite these nitpicking, "The Host" is an exciting and entertaining film that has an appeal so broad only the biggest hater could turn up their nose at it.