Monster Movie a Day #1

The Host

Dir. Bong Joon-ho

In anticipation for the July 12^th release date of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, I am offering a Monster Movie a Day review.  Here is the first of the series!

 

I have never been a fan of lists or rankings, but I continue to list and rank nearly everything.  Who am I to tell you that King Kong is a better monster than Godzilla? Thus this column does not insist a list or a ranking but a smattering of indelible monsters movies that everyone should see. 

What is it about a monster that intrigues so many people?  A monster is simply a twisted atrocity of natural order typically associated with words like sinister, nightmare, or terror.  Humankind naturally demands definition and explanation for unnatural phenomena, and when, logical contextualization cannot be provided, people experience fear.  Fear builds from the reality, or unreality, of the unknown and the limitless perversion that exists within it.  Within that fear resides humankind’s fascination with monsters. 

The late twentieth century found its monsters on a smaller scale than the King Kongs and the Godzillas of the world.  The monsters became human, aliens, diseases, gremlins, vampires, etc.  Audiences found terror in the disguisable and the invisible (John Carpenter’s The Thing as a example).  That trend was pushed aside in 2006 with the release of the South Korean hit monster film, The Host (completely unrelated to Andrew Niccol’s 2013 film of the same name).  The monster in the film is unnamed – simply referred to as Gwoemul, a Korean translation of the word monster.  Gwoemul is a call-back to the classic giant monsters of the 1950’s and 60’s, most notably members of Godzilla’s rogues gallery.  As with the best giant monsters, Gwoemul was created by people disregarding or trying to improve Earth’s natural order.  In the case of The Host, American GIs stationed in South Korea dump chemicals into a sewer, thus constructing an allegory for Western military occupation in the East.  Gwoemul is a part of the kaiju family tree because, quite simply, it acts on pure animalistic rage.  The monster succeeds because the audience never witness the potential destruction the monster is capable of despite working on a much smaller scale than the traditional giant monsters.  The appetite for mass destruction expected by fans of Godzilla will not go unsatisfied as The Host offers plenty of impressive monster sequences that rivals the best in any monster movie.

Gwoemul works as a monster so well because of the delicate directing and performances in the film.  Nearly every element is fine-tuned to provide a heartbreaking, terrifying, and often comic film that serves as South Korea’s response to Japan’s Godzilla.  The Host is a delight.

I said it in 2006, and I will repeat it whenever asked, Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host is a must-see film.  Catch it right now on DVD, Blu-Ray, Netflix streaming, or Amazon Prime Instant Video. 

Feel free to Comment below! I would love to read what you have to say.