The Host: Review By sthuris

"The Host" is by turns a monster movie, a family drama and a paranoiac political statement. Tragedy, action, dark humor and sentiment are all crammed into a consistently surprising film. The elements seem to throw a few elbows at such close quarters, but the overall product is moving and memorable.

Written and directed by Joon-ho Bong, "The Host" is the story of working-class people in Seoul beset by the normal problems of a fractured family, but with the addition of a bloodthirsty reptile and a society panicked under martial law to worry about. Although we never learn the motivations of the creature or the inner workings of the government -the other monster, in a sense-we do get an intimate picture of these five people. The central character is Gang-du Park (outstandingly played by Kang-ho Song), a middle-aged and rather pitiful assistant at a food stand owned by his father (Hie-bong Byeon). Gang-du is also father to a young girl (the impressive Ah-sung Ko) who is swept up by the monster at the end of a deadly rampage. After the tragedy, his embittered younger brother (Hae-il Park) and his sister (Du-na Bae), a competitive archer, are caught in the net of the government's response. Infuriated by official delays, all four adults set out to find Gang-du's daughter.

Monster movies, even disaster movies, are rarely so good at conveying the depth and color of human response to brutality, helplessness and loss. An early scene in "The Host" shows a display of public grief, but also shows how grief can turn to anger, blame and stubbornness. These moments of insight are sprinkled throughout the film. In an especially touching scene halfway through, the exhausted family eats in silence. Although they say nothing, we see how all their thoughts are focused on the same desire, a brief image that almost by itself warrants seeing the movie.

But soon after this moment of silence, "The Host"-its Korean title "Gwoemul" translates as "Monster"-loses steam and never quite regains it, despite a handful of good action sequences. This flaw was pointed out in many early notices for the movie, so it is disappointing that nothing apparent was done over the past year to correct it. Despite the overall slowness, the last minutes do provide an emotionally valid conclusion to the family's story.

This is a beautiful, arresting film. Cinematographer Hyung-ku Kim mostly dispenses with creature-view shots or acrobatic camera work, instead giving us classically composed images (with help from excellent lighting). The frightening and unique creature of the title was developed and animated by teams in Korea, New Zealand and San Francisco. Its first appearance is so well handled that it manages to shock despite an ample warning. The special effects are generally quite good, with just a couple of inadequate shots. Unfortunately these come at moments when we most need to stay immersed in the story. A further shortcoming is that the monster moves with an agility that seems almost absurd.

The score by Byung-woo Lee is well-written and varied, though at times a bit sentimental. In a clever musical joke, we see a girl listening on headphones to a song of Schumann that translates "Trees shudder as though ancient gods strode among the ruins"-as the monster comes crashing through the park behind her.

There are many such subtle touches in the film, but clumsy plotting keeps the final product from being entirely convincing. And the depiction of the U.S. military as a nefarious bully is a caricature unworthy of the rest of the picture, besides detracting focus from the family at its center.

"The Host" has already had critical and box-office success in much of the world, and the run-up to its U.S. release has been quite long. Magnolia Pictures is to be congratulated for taking up its distribution. Box office was $100M in South Korea alone, so it should be no surprise that Universal has bought the rights to remake it. But any remake, whatever its strengths, is unlikely to match the peculiar honesty of the original.