Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13427 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Host has managed to become Korea's most successful film to date, winning acclaim both domestically and internationally, and it's easy to see why. At first glance, it looks like any other monster movie--an amphibious creature from the depths stalks and devours an urban population--but there's actually much, much more going on beneath the surface. Not that there needs to be: although it has a fairly hefty 119-minute runtime, The Host is fast moving, with plenty of action and a truly gruesome-looking monster. Visually, it's a gorgeous movie, with stunning special effects and beautiful settings (even the rather nasty sewer scenes look perversely great). However, the real crux of The Host isn't really anything to do with the monster: at heart, this is a family drama, not a horror movie.

The story focuses on one small family and how they react to the weird goings-on all around them. When the youngest member of the family, Hyun-seo, is snatched by the titular monster, the family is devastated until a call from her mobile phone gives them fresh hope. Unfortunately, everyone who came into contact with the being has been quarantined due to a virus scare, so they have to escape the Korean authorities to go on a rescue mission. Then the American army steps in, and all hell breaks loose...

It's a very original idea, with nuanced and well-written characters, plenty of humour, and a darker undercurrent of social and political commentary, topped off with a thrilling monster-killing adventure. Brilliant, in other words. --Sarah Dobbs

Special Features
Deleted scenes

Making-of with director Bong Joon-Ho

Monster Gag Reel

Audition tapes

The Characters

Storyboards

The creature making process: 5 sequences showing the process from animatrix to completion

Creature stills gallery

Bong Joon-Ho’s Direction

Saying Goodbye to The Host - production team and actors talk about finishing the film

Memories of the sewer – talking about the difficulties of shooting inside the sewer

The film departments - Set design, martial arts, props, agent yellow, bones and bodies

Puppet animatronix

Designing the creature

Kevin’s Korean Life – Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Raffertey’s experience of Korea

Physical Special Effects – Interview with Assistant Director, Sound Effects

Training the actors – archery lessons, gun training etc

Creature animation – model-making and animation,

Synopsis
Selling his wares to passers by along Seoul’s Han River, life is peaceful for a small-time snack bar owner and his dim-witted son. However, the tranquillity f of their day –to-day lives is shattered when a mutant creature emerges from the depths of the Han and embarks on a blood-thirsty rampage. While many of the local citizens are scrambling to escape, the father, son and other assorted family members must seek out their newfound nemesis, in order to rescue a relative.

Customer Reviews

If this Fish gets you... you've had your Chips!

From the different comments I have seen about this move, the most accurate comes from the back of the DVD case itself... "the suspense of Jaws, the humour of Tremors, and the biting satire of Dawn Of The Dead. FANTASTIC." I wouldn't go so far as to call it fantastic, but it is good.

Although HOST has its scary moments, there's a little too much quirky humour for me to think it a horror movie, instead, I think of it as an enjoyable, albeit unorthodox Creature-Feature.

Unlike the majority of films of this ilk, there is no long, tension-building plot line before the monster is finally revealed in all its hideous glory, (thereby making its revelation the main focus of attention). Rather, HOST has a number of plot lines running simultaneously, one of which happens to be about a monster causing mayhem and snatching humans in broad daylight from under the noses of others (another unusual twist).

The CGI beastie is first class, to be honest it's far superior to what I expected (it's done by the same folk who did Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Sin City). The intertwining stories are engaging enough to hold the film together even without the Creature, so it won't take long to settle in and forget this is a 2 hour film in Korean with English subtitles though it does get a little surreal towards the end.

If you're feeling like a fishy Creature Feature with a bit of bite and a dollop of fun, this one's worth not letting get away. The only point of caution I'd make is that the related trailer above makes the film seem more menacing than I thought it actually was.

So Much More Than a Creature Feature
Far and away the best film of 2006. On the face of it your average big monster creature feature but not so. This film has everything. Action; comedy; drama; fantasy; horror; sci-fi; pathos; heroism; political comment and an examination of that trickest of life's challenges - family relationships. The characters are heroic but deeply flawed and prone to failure, in short really human.


I hate when people give the whole plot away, so I won't, but I will say take note of the opening scene it is a reconstruction of what was actually a quite horrifying true event. What Joon-ho Bong the Director does is extrapolate from that event and using an accessible entertaining film subtly comments on the real horrors that such cavalier attitudes will lead us to and no I don't mean the monster - state interference; state indifference, rumour and obfuscation; deliberate demonising everything we can see already in a world deliberately being taught to be afraid of its own shadow.

And the finale - Hollywood would never have the nerve.

Above all a cracking film - enjoy!

Hollywood Eat Your Heart Out. Korea Know How To Make A Creature Feature.
'The Host' is just outstanding in every single way.
It rolls horror and comedy into one making a perfect mix for two hours entertainment.
The storyline is fantastic and for those who don't take their films too seriously, this is a must.
The story is based around a father called Gang-Du, desperate to save his daughter Hyun-Seo from the terrible monster holding her captive in a sewer under Wonhyo Bridge with the aid of his sister, a professional archer called Nam-Joo and his father, Hee-Bong, the owner of a local snack van.
This is a wonderful film, packed with fantastic CGI and a cast that you will fall in love with. This is an epic horror film that many could view and enjoy without being too scared and not having to take anything seriously for 2 hours.
This is a great film and yet again, it's not from Britian or America.
The best in cinema lies within Foreign countries without a doubt.
A grand achievement for Korea.