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The Host

6.0

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Original title

Gwoemul (The Host)

Year

2006

Running time

119 min.

Country

South Korea

Director

Bong Joon-ho

Screenwriter

Bong Joon-ho, Ha Jun-weon, Baek Cheol-hyeon. Story: Bong Joon-ho

Cast

Music

Lee Byung-woo

Cinematography

Kim Hyeong-gyu

Producer

Co-production South Korea-Japan;

Chungeorahm Film, Showbox Entertainment, Seoul Broadcasting System

Genre

Fantasy. Horror. Sci-Fi. Thriller | Monsters

Synopsis

Hee-bong (Byun Hee-bong) is the owner of a small food stand in the Han River Citizen's Park, selling squid, candy and beer to people who have come out to enjoy the sun. Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) is one of his three children, a man who seems a bit slow mentally and whose one motivating strength is a devotion to his schoolage daughter Hyun-seo (Ko Ah-sung). Rounding out the family is Nam-joo (Bae Doona), an amateur competitive archer and her brother Nam-il (Park Hae-il), a former student radical who at present is drunk and unemployed. There are no mothers in the family -- Hee-bong's wife having passed on and Gang-du's having run away. It's a dysfunctional group, held together only by the crisis that faces them, and yet the family dynamics will feel familiar to many viewers.

It is when the creature snatches the young Hyun-seo that the family becomes aligned against this unknown biological threat.

Rankings Position

#80 Best Monster Movies & Monster Series

Awards: 2006: Sitges Fantasy Film Festival: Best Special Effects

2006: Blue Dragon Film Awards (South Korea): 5 awards. 10 nominations

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Critics' reviews

It became the #1 Top grossing film at the domestic South Korean box office.

FilmAffinity
"On almost every level, there's never quite been a monster movie like 'The Host.' (...) A bold gamble that looks headed to instant cult status."

Derek Elley: Variety
"[It] is the defining monster movie of the 21st century (...) Bong Joon-ho's monster-sized masterpiece feels more relevant than ever because of its emphasis on the sheer brazenness of evil."

David Ehrlich: IndieWire
"Like its magnificent beast, 'The Host' is wild, crazy, messy, preposterous -- and all the better for it (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"

Jim Emerson: rogerebert.com
"A cautionary environmental tale about the domination of nature and the costs of human folly, and it may send chills up your spine."

Manohla Dargis: The New York Times
"I found something oddly unscary about the creature itself. And the film, though intriguing, doesn't quite have the raw, crazy showmanship of an old-fashioned monster movie (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

Peter Bradshaw: The Guardian
"The mix of dark humor, creeping suspense, and a sort of apocalyptic tenderness makes this the best horror flick in years."

J.R. Jones: Chicago Reader
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The Host

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