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I just rented The Host and was surprised by it's quality. I lived in Korea for three years and don't have a lot of faith in their movies, however The Host has changed my mind.
It is part Jaws, Godzilla, and Little Miss Sunshine.
It is sad, dark, funny, dramatic, a little scary and I cared for the characters. Character development tends to be lacking in monster movies, but I was more interested in the characters then I was the monster.
Has anyone else seen it? It is at 92% on Rotton Tomatoes. Thoughts? Would you classify it as a horror or drama? If you do see it, be sure to turn on subtitles and watch it in Korean. The dubbing isn't that good.
WOW:
Before I posted this I went to check Rotten Tomatoes for quotes, and two people compared it to Godzilla and Little Miss Sunshine. I did not read the reviews before I made that comparison.
quote:The Host is like a mutant hybrid spawned from the improbable union of Little Miss Sunshine and Godzilla. For the film is a family comedy and political satire in which an unnaturally evolved tadpole just happens to loom (very) large. Bong expertly balances absurd humour against tense thrills, and domestic drama against mass mayhem, reasserting South Korea's place at the pinnacle of genre-busting cinema - and most of all he surprises at every turn in a film where, despite a realistic social milieu, almost anything seems possible.
Like the original Godzilla, The Host uses a real-life event - in this case the well-documented disposal of toxic chemicals into the Han river by the American military in 2000 - as the starting point for a nature's revenge plot, allowing Bong to expose along the way many of the anxieties and tensions in contemporary Korean society: concerns about environmental degradation, fear of a SARS-style epidemic, the uneasy alliance with the world's only superpower, and the powerlessness of the ordinary individual before arrogant, corrupt and incompetent authorities. Bong's band of heroes, led by the preposterous yet engaging Gang-du, gives voice to all the repressed hopes of the little man (and woman).
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I haven't seen it, but it sounds interesting, so onto my Netflix queue it goes. I'll let you know. Thanks for the tip. Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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I picked it up after seeing it on aintitcool.com They do a lot of dvd reviews and a semi-regular rundown of Tuesday releases. (I say semi becuase it is never reliable week to week but they often have movies listed that you may not hear of in local main stream america, so even if it isn't consitent, when they do post it's usually got some hidden gems)
As for the Host, I enjoyed it. I'm huge on foreign action/monster/kung-fu flicks right now though. But I owuld agree that it was much better than your regular run of the millmonster flick. definately worth putting on the blockbuster/netflix queue.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Little Miss Sunshine, you say? Well, there was one scene where a bunch of characters had to jump aboard a moving van. But on the other hand, I don't remember Little Miss Sunshine's cold, clammy corpse being fished out of the belly of a sea monster at the end of that movie. On the whole, if you found Little Miss Sunshine to be as depressing as The Host, may I suggest you have your meds adjusted.
Don't misinterpret: I did think the movie was very good. But I made my wife watch it with me. She loved Little Miss Sunshine, so I kept assuring her that it was eventually going to get funny and whimsical. She lasted up until the point where one of the main characters gets forcibly lobotomized by a crazy, bloodthirsty scientist. I don't think she's going to be trusting my judgment on movies for a little while now.
Good flick, but maybe describing it as a cross between Godzilla and Apocalypse Now, or perhaps A Clockwork Orange, would have more fully prepared me for the experience.
quote:Little Miss Sunshine, you say?.... But I made my wife watch it with me. She loved Little Miss Sunshine, so I kept assuring her that it was eventually going to get funny and whimsical.
**SPOILERS ***
I guess I reacted to Little Miss Sunshine differently then you. I thought it was depressing, dysfunctional, and funny. Granted the little girl didn't get eaten, but I saw a lot of similarities.
Both movies are about dysfunctional families going after an important family goal. The Host was very much a road trip with multiple obstacles. I thought it was very funny, especially during the most depressing parts (except for the girls death).
The girl's dad really was dumb. In a lot of shows the dumb person looks dumb and acts dumb, but s/he usually saves the day by doing something stupid. It's a cop-out. The character is dumb but somehow manages to be an asset.
When the grandpa goes to shoot the monster and there are no bullets and you see the son counting his shots with his fingers...admit it, you laughed before you cringed.
His slow thinking was responsible for loosing his daughter (who eventually died), his dad's death, and getting getting caught by authorities. There was no cheesy redemption, and yet I still liked the character and rooted for him.
The sister really is slow. When she is about to take the hero shot as the monster is bearing down on her, she really does take too long. I laughed when I was at the height of tension and the monster just knocks her over because she just didn't have time to fire the shot.
I saw lots of dysfunctional moments that were funny, despite the tragic outcomes, and added layers to the show.
It was really brave to have the best shots of the monster at the beginning of the show and to have the little girl actually die.
*** END SPOILERS ***
I would like to see OSC review the movie.
EDIT: Notice, I asked in the first post if you would "classify it as a horror or drama?" That is about as far away from "whimsical comedy" I can think to describe something.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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