…to The Host. Bong Joon-ho’s blockbuster opens Stateside today after receiving gobs of gushing press in the wake of a Cannes premier last year. At Salon, Andrew O’Hehir offers a representative bit of praise:
It’s a vivid, anarchic picture that’s high on old-fashioned thrills. It’s sardonic, silly, violent and tenderhearted. It’s purportedly political (though I wouldn’t go too far with that). It’s got a big, ugly rubber monster and a rubber-faced doofus for a hero, the kind of guy everybody thinks is a loser until he proves otherwise. If the family from “Little Miss Sunshine” moved to Korea and had to do battle with a big kid-eating mutant gazingus, well … that would be very strange. But it might be a little like this. So what’s not to like?
Rare is the foreign film that gets American audiences to dish out $8.00 for a ticket. Could The Host offer just enough action, horror, and humor to convince Joe Six-pack that the subtitles are worth reading?
For my money, The Host was a fine flick, but I agree with Monsieur Paquet when he says that Woman on the Beach was the best Korean film of 2006.
9 Comments
most good historians did a much better review of the movie many years before it was filmed. blood sucking parasites are leaches on more than just nutrients, they can derive the soul of sustagence. one need only to go to Jeju to see how that place still has the wind knocked out of it 50 years later. and teh there is south korea.
thank god the americans came here and liberated the place
crap movie , but the intentions were well made.
Oh, is it really fair to compare The Host to Woman on the Beach?
The Host has already gotten considerable exposure here stateside through film festivals, and while festival audiences are probably a trifle more motivated to go see foreign and art films than the average viewer . . . I have to say, it’ll probably do decent business. The audience I saw it with at PIFF (that’s Portland, not Pusan) just ate it up. It may not be a great film, but it’s a good one and certainly a good candidate for release here.
and technically, it’s still Thursday here - it comes out tommorow.
When I used to live in Korea, the scale of evaluation was always based on relativity. Mexican restaurant? Well, it’s good “for Korea.” Of course back home it would be a sub-par pile, but given the alternatives, it benefited from the awful competition.
The Host is decent “for Korea.” The acting is laughable (as is generally the standard for Korean films with a rare exception here or there) and the special effects were obviously done on the cheap (meaning expensive as hell “for Korea”). It succeeds in offering some tension, but that’s about the extent of the positives.
The politics of the film were ham-handed and offered very little overall, in fact mainly detracting from it. The numerous digs at America are by now cliche, as were the Koreans-as-perpetual-victims themes.
Can’t imagine many Americans paying to see it in the theater, despite the world-wide domination plans of the Korean distributors and the ever-present desire of Koreans to see a film of their own dominate the American box office.
the koreans make high quality movies with fantastic acting but this movie ain’t it. just like ‘memories of murder’ this flick doesn’t live up to the hype. it’s boring and not too scary. the monster? to me, it looked like a large dog that any rifle could handle.
here’s my advice on how to choose the right korean movie: check out the movies that are least popular with koreans and you’ll probably have a good movie on your hands.
‘to see a film of their own dominate the american box office.’ blue
yeah, so what? that’s probably the dream of most movie makers around the world. of course, the koreans won’t have a hit movie here until they realize that westerners are’t very interested in asian movies set in modern times. the chinese seem to understand that while the koreans don’t.
The folks releasing the movie in the States did a neat trick that might fool a few guys into going: The only dialog you hear trailer is from the little bit of English they have in the film.
BTW: ‘Memories of Murder’ was a fine movie. I liked it because it let me get into the characters without trying to be overly sentimental. When the main character saw his friend and fellow police officer’s boots, including his shit stomper covered in cloth (I presume to keep it from getting covered in blood and gore) and felt sad because he knew that his friend would never stomp shit again, I felt his pain.
SPOILER ALERT
Another thing: If this movie had been made in America, the little girl would not have died.
pawi, for once I totally agree with you.
PS. The same can be said about French and American movies, but it’s particularly true about Canadian productions. With all the money that James Cameron’s movies have earned at the box office, his movies don’t even come close to anything directed by Atom Egoyan, Denis Arcand, or David Cronenberg.
Liked Memories of Murder. Watched Host to see what the fuss is all about. Didn’t like Host. Crap movie.
As of March 12 afternoon, Rotten Tomatoes has THE HOST at 93% fresh — 71 positive, 5 negative.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/host/