The Host
A monster movie with a message. This is the easiest and shortest way one could describe Bong Joon-ho’s monster film masterpiece The Host, opening in theaters on March 9th. Inherent in that statement is initial contradiction followed by understanding when one sits back and thinks about how many such films have come before. Certainly the B-level monster movies of the 1950’s warned against the Communist threat and unchecked scientific advancement. Perhaps the most pertinent example of this idea is the Japanese classic Godzilla itself, a story about a giant beast who breathes atomic fire after being born as a result of nuclear testing; a nation ravaged by such destruction finding an outlet on screen in order to cope with their own anxieties and fears over what happened in symbolic form. The Host follows in this tradition, yet breaks off quite markedly as it occupies a position of surface-level sci-fi/horror flick and as a savage, anti-American critique in both its actions and irresponsibility. A surprise hit in Cannes when first premiered as well as during its screening at the New York Film Festival, The Host works on all desired levels and leaves the viewer with both candy for the eyes and a meal for thought.
The film opens in modern-day Korea on a US military base. An American medical officer orders a Korean doctor employed at the base to dump their excess formaldehyde supply down the drain, knowingly violating hazardous waste laws. After some protesting, the doctor proceeds to pour bottle after bottle down the drain. Cut to a pair of fly fisherman in the Han River going about their business when one unexpectedly catches some odd, deformed creature. The viewer is not shown what is caught but overhears of his deformed body before it scurries away. Through these brief flash cuts in action, one witnesses the birth of something abnormal, waiting to surface for all to see.
The action then settles upon a working-class Korean family that lives in a trailer doubling for a snack stand on the banks of the Han River on one particular afternoon. The family consists of Park Gang-du (Song Kang-ho), his young daughter Hyun-seo (Ko Ah-sung), and his father Hie-bong (Byun Hie-bong), who on this particular day are watching Gang-du’s sister, an archery athlete, representing Korea in an international tournament. Their festivities are frighteningly interrupted when a large, severely deformed monster arrives on the riverbank and proceeds to run down and devour as many people as possible. The scene of faceless flocks running haphazardly away from this lumbering beast plays like something out of a standard big-blockbuster action film, think Jurassic Park or War of the Worlds with genuine terror invoked instead of mere fantasy. While attempting to escape the scene with Hyun-seo, Gang-du loses her in the crowd and she is ensnared by the beast and ingested on an opposite river bank for Gang-du to watch in horror.
After the initial attack, horrible as it was, the Korean government perpetrates its own state of panic as it attempts to assess the situation through military overreaction. Gang-du and his family, along with others mourning their lost loved ones at a makeshift shrine are gassed out and quarantined; being told by officials that the mysterious creature is a host to some new disease and that no one who came within contact can leave due to risk of infection. Once the survivors are in the local medical center, Gang-du receives a nearly inaudible cell phone call from Hyun-seo herself, who has survived her ingestion but is now being held in part of the city’s vast sewer system along with other survivors being held as future food. With this new information, Gang-du and the others escape from the medical facility, hook up with local criminals for supplies, and set out to find Hyun-seo and kill the monster themselves.
Up to this point, the film follows familiar tropes in this genre yet Joon-ho establishes these plot points to only deviate from them and insert his own ideas of interest. While Gang-du searches for his daughter, the US government steps into the situation and begins coordinating with the local forces to formulate their own response to the attack. Competing fumigation companies are dispatched and quickly latch onto the government contract to disinfect the riverbank and surrounding area of the supposed virus. The US forces continuously flood the television networks with hype and disinformation regarding the deadliness of this disease when all those at the attack site, including the family register no symptoms at all. This groundwork leads to the American insistence of deploying a new biological weapon system dubbed “Agent Yellow” in order to supposedly destroy the creature once and for all, however this decision leads to its own tragic and dubious consequences. All the while, attempts to hunt down and destroy the creature are left by the wayside, in favor or perpetrating and capitalizing on the wave of fear cooked up by the allied governments.
On the other hand, Gang-du and the others, including his father, his archer sister, and unemployed brother band together despite their constant needling of each other and themselves. The dichotomy is perfect, when faced with an outside threat be it the creature or military, they resolve to come together and work as a cohesive if somewhat hapless team. However, when all external threats are extinguished they go back to their old patterns of argument and discontent. This behavior is probably more realistic than the standard portrayals of enemies coming together to fight a common foe and becoming BFF’s afterwards. What’s done is done but that does not erase old wounds and the film effectively captures that sentiment.
By the film’s end, Joon-ho stylistically mixes blockbuster action production values, absurd black comedy, poignant melodrama, and incisive social critique in one engaging stew while portraying it all with a texture of banality that makes it all the more realistic and frightening. While other films criticizing US policy and intervention in the war on terror have been and will continue to be produced, what has emerged as the most pointed argument against political insanity, military abuse, and the conscious employ of fear in achieving one’s political agenda, came not from the George Clooneys of the world but a Korean filmmaker who previously directed only two other features. On top of that, the symbolic employ of the deformed creature as representing the consequences of ecological disaster strikes an additional chord with those who witnessed the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and toxic agents like DDT and BGH. Often times, the greatest arguments about one’s own society are not made by the politicians or pundits but by the artists themselves. The Host is a perfect example of that and carries not only current resonance but illustrate themes that have haunted us in the past and most likely will carry on into the future.