I love the fact that The New York Times is loving The Host. I’m still wigging out that my favorite director from back in the day is now the hottest thing since sliced tooboo around the world.
By turns a carnival of horrors and a family melodrama (variations on the same theme), “The Host” is also a rethink of those 1950s cine-quickies in which mondo ants, locusts, wasps, crabs and snails and one seriously ticked off amphibious reptile go on the rampage, visiting punishment on a hapless, guilty humanity. Like Godzilla (Gojira in the original Japanese), some of these mutants were born under a mushroom cloud; others were hatched in the B-movie hothouse of box-office opportunism.
I’m sure Bae Du-na is wigging off of being in The New York Times over any of the other actors, outside of the traditional publicity shots. Perhaps she’s so good at looking apprehensive? Confused? But she was definitely cool with the bow and arrow. Remember, she’s the only one who faces off, warrior-style, against the monster. 3 times. Badass.
It’s also interesting to see The Host being so heavily compared to Little Miss Sunshine (both in the NYT and Salon), in terms of a quirky family that transverses and transgresses American society. One of the strengths of The Host, when I first saw it alone, without finished sound effects, in my home theater in the middle of the night as prep for meeting the director the next day, was its universal appeal, but chock full of local flavor.
For more about why I think The Host marks the real future of the so-called “Korean Wave,” click on over.
2 Comments
there’s a story on wired news as well.
Ebert likes it, too.