Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19331 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-05-21
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

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 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.

Good but not great - thoroughly entertaining!
I should say first off that I really enjoyed this film - I didn't really know anything about it, but I know the director from his other work, and I'd heard some good things. It was a thoroughly entertaining watch!

On the good side, the creature, the 'Host', is superb, and it makes a great change to have it out in the open causing mayhem. It's movement and reactions are fantastic and more natural than Hollywood would ever allow, and it looks and feels like a real animal because of it. The first 'rampage' is thrilling, and gets things off to a fantastic start. The main characters, especially the father of the little girl taken by the creature, are brilliantly engaging, and I really cared about the outcome by the end.

There are some big problems with this film. The main one is a distinct lack of really chilling or frightening moments, although there are plenty of jaw-dropping and exciting ones instead! The fact that this film was made in Korea, and by a truly original director, are the main reasons for its appeal for me - the look and feel, the entire approach are different from what we expect, and it keeps your interest. However sometimes the differences distract from the story - the emotions of the characters at key moments sometimes seem very strange and jarred with my own.

Overall I would certainly recommend it - for those who enjoy Asian cinema, for horror fans who don't demand too many 'shocks' or for anyone who enjoys something a bit different from the norm. It's an original, enjoyable but somewhat flawed effort, and I'm not sure if I'll watch it again in the near future.

[3.5]--To make horror or comedy is never easy.
To be able to make both at the same time is something only a few directors can do. To do that, and still be able to make an emotionally sad movie is not something I have seen before. After watching this I thought it was a good genre-blending movie. Director Joon-ho Bong Memories of Murder-(great film by the way) goes for a very character centric feel, using the Park family as the nucleus of the movie and not as you would expect the creature itself. In many ways the Host is more a natural disaster movie than a creature feature at times. Though like Godzilla, the creature is the result of man's disregard for the environment, that is really where a lot of the comparisons end. With this film being quite different from Toho's legendary suitmation icon's outings, which where all about the big G himself and humans merely incidental. Though you might be able to compare this a little more to the American Godzilla remake, if only to see how a CGI monster movie should be done and to remind yourself just how lame Roland Emmerich's movie really was. How ever when the creature does turn up in Bongs movie it does have a really good impact with several instances making me jump a bit, after being lulled into a false sense of security by the stretches of monster free screen time.

The initial appearance of the creature under the bridge and the chaos that ensues is some of the best creature action put on film in a long, long time. The creature is well designed and for the most part the CGI is very good. The way it moves is great and very original. I think they might have gone a bit overboard on the mouth design as this is a mutant of some kind and not an alien, but really that's being picky about a great design. Personally I would have liked just a bit more creature action in the rest of the film, I appreciate the director's idea to give it a sense of the dramatic and the real, but I didn't care that much about some of the character interplay and subplots. That said all the cast where pretty good in their roles with Kang-ho Song holding his own well in the starring role and Hie-bong Byeon excellent as his father. Newcomer Ah-sung Ko as the young Hyun-seo does an amazing job in her scenes around the creature considering its all CGI. She has some really convincing facial expressions and manages to give a really natural performance a million miles removed from that horrible precious trained acting kid stuff we put up with from many western movies.

"The Host" for the most part manages to be pretty successful at avoiding being as one dimensional as it so easily could have been (though that's not such a bad thing with creature features). Bong manages to balance comedy, terror, sadness and action well and create a believable human tale in amongst the unbelievable nature of the films theme. The film has a slightly, I won't say anti American, because that's not true, its more a slightly condemning look at the America's environmental polices or lack of them. One thing the story does present well is the way authorities so concerned with the big picture, will often ignore the individual. In this case leaving Kang du with only his family to turn to and the way the seemingly dysfunctional family without question band together to save Hyun-seo is great. The films finish is not anywhere near as strong as its start and though still good is a bit weak in my opinion, although it does manage to surprise in some ways. I'm sure this flick will be remade by Hollywood soon, though they may slightly alter the premise. "The Host" is the best creature feature in some time and its feeling of reality should appeal to a much wider audience than just fans of horror and sci-fi.