Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12970 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-05-21
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• 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.

[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.

Whats that coming out of the river , is it a monster , a monster?
Its about time the old fashioned creature feature , much beloved of the 1950,s and 60s, underwent a renaissance and Korean film The Host could be the movie to kick start it. However this film has so much more going for it than the simple tale of some random freak beastie running amok and killing people , though be reassured there is plenty of that going on too.
The movie helmed by the director of the excellent "Memories Of Murder" Joon-ho Bong and adapted from a screenplay written by Bong and Chul- hyun Baek and Jun-won Ha incorporates a story about a dysfunctional family with a satirical element lambasting government incompetence and mendaciousness in the face of a crisis. It's like "The Royal Tenambaums " crossed with "Tremors" with a bit of "Outbreak " thrown in for good measure , though its actually far better than I made that sound.
The Park family own a snack bar at a popular riverfront location run by patriarch Hi-Bong( Hie-bong Byeon)His lazy grown up son Gang-du( Kang ho-Song) naps and watches TV but is also a dad to precocious teenage daughter Hyun-seo( Ah-sing Do).Bongs daughter Nam -joo( Du-na Bae) is a champion archer with a tendency to hesitate at vital moments while his other son Nam-il( Hae-il Park) is a floundering drunk. Their world is turned upside down when a n amphibian monster( Produced by the illegal dumping of chemicals in the river by the US army which is based on an actual incident) suddenly appears in Seoul's Han river , and runs creates havoc on the waterfront in the process grabbing Hyun -seo and taking her off to its lair.
The fact the film gives you a full view of the monster so early in the proceedings hints broadly that this is not going to be your conventional creature feature . There is none of the gradual reveal and tantalising glimpses usually associated with horror films and their monsters.
That's because the story here is as much about the family and how they set about trying to locate and save the youngster .The family must pool their resources and co-operate with each other in order to triumph and after a fractious grief stricken period , once they realise that the girl may still be alive this is what they do. Hyun-seo meanwhile proves to be resourceful and courageous even saving an young boy also dropped into the creatures lair and it's this relationship that provides a moving coda later on.
The narrative also has the government illicit panic about a fictitious virus and thus cause further chaos by doing so and then impart a solution that's actually more deadly than the problem it's supposed to be solving. There is also the usual attempts at a cover-up and how this also hinders the Park families increasingly desperate attempts to find their loved one as the powers hunt them down , fearing them contaminated with the phoney virus.
The multiple plots strands are handled deftly , though they do mean the film is longer than is maybe necessary and sometimes it becomes too hysterical and hectic. The film looks tremendous on DVD, even though it is often shot in dank , and dingy locations and the performances are uniformly terrific with the youngsters especially good.
The creature produced by a US computer graphics company -"Orphanage Inc" - is a believable creation and is mostly brilliantly done .It moves in a creepily realistic way (It was called Steve Buscemi on set and was based on the way his character moved in the film "Fargo")and while it does resemble previous movie monsters (elements of "Relic" ,"Alien " and "Predator" especially) it is original enough to stand on it's own four fin like feet.
The Host is not only entertaining and exciting it raises the usual issues about mans awesome arrogance and ineptitude in a way that pays homage to the creature features of old while giving a topical sardonic edge that they lacked. A massive success in it's native Korea it will hopefully , like I mentioned before ensure that monster movies undergo a revival . Quite right too as there are few finer sights in a movie than a monster on the rampage ,Scarlett Johansen in a corset accepted.