What’s original about the Academy Award-winning director’s 2006 monster movie, hostIt’s that it wastes no time in serving its dessert before dinner by answering every question about its title kaiju in the film’s opening moments. We get a brief introduction to some of the doctors, one of whom is ex-walking dead Scott Wilson, and his undeserved medical malpractice: dumping a bunch of formaldehyde in the Han River (something that actually happened in real life). What comes out of this is a mutant tadpole that attacks some unsuspecting beachgoers trying to spend a lovely afternoon. It is complete chaos. But amidst the chaos, Bong doesn’t have the creature going on a rampage without thinking like other Kaiju. He establishes a toolkit containing the fish-like beast and its demonic qualities.
The nightmarish axolotl creature is as dangerous on land as it is in the sea, armed with brute strength, a dagger-like prehensile tail and gaping jaws. It crawls at a fast pace, but when hunting or making a tactical retreat, it uses that tail to swing under bridges like monkey bars, pulling it back in its sewer howl before swan diving back into the river to drown its victims. In one short scene, Bong establishes the creature as an obvious threat that refuses to obey curfews, while also adding a layer of mystery to its “kill everything that moves” psychology. It’s equal parts King Kong and Godzilla, localized into one compact package. More importantly, it is a magnificent creature.
Another strike against most monster movies is that they fail to make their human characters as interesting as their creatures. The Host is a glaring exception to this. That’s not because its characters are superpowered weirdos, part of a hypercompetent militia, or a bunch of moaning people you can’t wait to see bite the dust. They care about you because they are an apparently vulnerable, trusting, dysfunctional family weathering this storm.
There is the unsuccessful son, Park Gang-du (Song Kang-ho); his dutiful but uncultured salaryman brother, Park Nam-il (Park Hae-il); Park Nam-joo (Bae Doona), his soft-spoken archer sister, who becomes suffocating when things go wrong; and Park Hye-bong (Byun Hee-bong), their patient and nurturing father trying to keep everyone afloat.
They’re all idiots to each other, but they’re the kind of relatable idiots that you can see in your family and see your loved ones in those bright spots, flaws and all. And they come together because they love Gang-du’s daughter, Park Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung), a girl who was kidnapped by the monster and taken to its sewer dwelling. and so is, host Hooks’ viewers, already leaning forward in their chairs for the creature, are leaning even further forward for this family. They’re out of their depth, especially against the backdrop of American interest in messing with South Korea, to use a monster to create an environmental disaster that it helped create, but they’re determined to save the smart sunspot around which their family revolves.
host Standing as the unicorn of a monstrous film, firing on all cylinders, daring the audience to laugh and cry in equal measure. Unlike many of its peers, it is not afraid to parade it out in broad daylight to show off its creature for all to see. It’s still a great flex all these years later, and a delightful rarity in the genre worth celebrating, especially since some of its early special effects still hold up. That Bong could make a monster movie – better yet, his first monster movie – without feeling derivative of the films that had come before, and could create a work that was equal parts heart-wrenching, horrifying, and silly without any one element weakening the others, is downright remarkable.
In a series of monster movies that are rarely shot for the moon, host Manages to have its cake and eat it too: proud of its creature designs, yet telling a deeply human story that’s more than just a vehicle for a climactic kaiju money shot.
host Streaming on Hulu.
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