Although clearly paying homage to Godzilla, King Kong, and Alien, The Host breaks with monster movie convention and shows the creature very early on, and in great detail. The story focuses on the Park family, who run a food stand on the banks of Seoul’s Han River. Their peace is interrupted by a monster about the size of a large elephant that is as fast on land as it is in the sea, and who has come to hunt the picnicking Koreans. Gang-Du's (Kang-ho Song) daughter Hyun-Seo (Ah-sung Ko) is taken by the beast and assumed dead, until her father gets a call from her. She is in the monster’s larder and the Park family have to resolves their differences, escape government detention and find and destroy the monster. No worries. Luckily Gang-Du Park’s archery champion sister Nam-Joo (Du-na Bae) is in the neighbourhood.

Monsters kidnapping little girls who fight back is a familiar theme, but the beast is more akin to the distant, angry and alienating King Kong (1993) rather than Peter Jackson’s angst-ridden, last-of-his-race, cuddly King Kong (2005). Almost as terrifying as the H.R. Giger monsters of Ridley Scott's Alien (1979); almost as deadly and seemingly invincible, the monster looks prehistoric, although not as gigantic as Godzilla (Gojira). Although we see a lot of the animal, it never really develops a personality; it is simply hunting and feeding, and living, there is no attempt of consciousness or understanding of its motives, there is only the competition of survival for both the beast and the humans.

Much like the Japanese Godzilla, the monster in The Host is a mutant born of pollution. While Godzilla was the result of atomic waste (a thinly-disguised reference to America’s heavy-handed bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), The Host is the result of repeated chemical pollution of the river by American companies (a thinly-disguised reference to the American corporations with sweat shops and factories in Korea, where workers are underpaid and forced to work in life-threatening conditions). Not only does the film directly critique unethical industrial practices by American companies taking advantage of the poverty of post-invasion Korea (see MASH), but it also brings to task its own government for propaganda, secrecy, and murder of dissident citizens.

Repeated throughout the film is the adage “the right of the hungry”, the idea that theft is acceptable if you have no food. The title of the film initially misled me into thinking it was to be an invasive viral-like possessive creature, the monster on the inside like Slither (2006)and Cabin Fever (2002) (although The Host does includes a sub-plot involving government propaganda regarding a deadly virus carried by the beast). However, with the repetition of the notion of the right of the hungry, the title seems to refer to humanity as ‘the host’ of the monster that we created with our capitalist greed. Since human wealth is put ahead of the welfare of the environment, nature delivers an unwelcome guest, who has the right to feed – after all its very monstrosity wi fuelled by human waste (a not so subtle reference to global-warming and the approaching devastation and death that will be wrought by the rising oceans).

Despite the beast having been created by toxic chemicals, the government plan to kill it with even more toxic chemicals, namely Agent Yellow (a thinly disguised reference to Agent Orange, a deadly herbicide used to flush out guerrilla armies during the Vietnam war). Although the government has applied militaristic control to the monster’s appearance - by locking up anyone who came near the creature, and releasing false reports of a virus - citizens opposed to the use of Agent Yellow are gathering numbers. Scenes of government brutality to protesters harken back to the massacre in Tienamin Square in China, and provide chilling scenes equal to that of the savage beast.

Korean and international news reports intersperse the narrative, creating the sub-plots of the Agent Yellow protestors and the people’s growing lack of faith in their government. Both the brutality and the consequences of American invasion (namely cultural and industrial takeover), and the shocking human rights record of many Asian countries, come under scrutiny in The Host. The humour is black and camp, the references to recent history are not subtle, although they are great to see, because they suggest how quickly we forget the aftermath of the invasion and enforced capitalism of American imperialism.

While I have dwelled on the political references in this film, it remains essentially a story of a family, and an action film about a group of unlikely heroes. The backdrop of rigid government control, and the invasion of the monster caused by foreign factories, both impact and alter the lives of the Park family, yet they display a certain indifference to what often remains psychological control by governments rather than direct imprisonment. The film impresses with its defiance of the current trend of patriotic armies saving the world, and its broad and bold references to many unpleasant moments in recent history. This empowering story suggests a defiant stance to world politics both inside and outside Korea. Seamless special effects, over the top action and suspense, and an all-star cast of popular Korean actors, subtle black humour, and not so subtle commentary on American imperialism, capitalism and the environment, make The Host a wild ride packed to the gills with the monsters in our own history.


Gwoemul (The Host)
2006

Director: Joon-ho Bong
Screenwriters: Chul-hyun Baek, Joon-ho Bong, Won-jun Ha
Cinematographer: Hyung-ku Kim
Editor: Seon Min Kim
Original Music: Byung-woo Lee
Cast: Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Du-na Bae, Ah-sung Ko