The Host

However you rank his many accomplishments, it’s hard to argue with the contention that The Host is Bong’s most purely enjoyable film. It’s a monster movie which delivers all the thrills, spills and suspense you might expect from the genre without stinting on Bong’s trademark quirky characters, tough-love gags or political undercurrents. For fans, Bong #3 has the added pleasure of seeing him mesh actors from both Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder.

It starts when a US Army medic orders a Korean junior to pour gallons of formaldehyde down the drain. (This is inspired by a real life scandal, because of course it is.) Some time later, a monster appears in the Han River in Seoul and begins seizing people from the banks. One of the first to go is the schoolgirl Hyeon-Seol, daughter of the slightly simple-minded Gang-Du (Song Kang-Ho), who works in his father’s snack-food stand by the river. Theirs is an averagely dysfunctional family. Gang-Du constantly irritates his father (Byun Hee-Bong) and is more or less estranged from his sister (Bae Doona), an archery champion, and his brother (Park Hae-Il), a slacker. But when the authorities declare a state of emergency and announce that the monster is believed to be host to a deadly virus, the family has no choice but to pull together to try to rescue Hyeon-Seol.

A total blast, The Host sold 13 million tickets in Korea alone, making it the most successful Korean film ever made.

Saturday’s screening will be introduced by Hannah Baek. Stick around for a roundtable discussion after this screening.

The roundtable discussion will be led by professor Su-Anne Yeo. Dr. Su-Anne Yeo teaches in the Department of Theatre & Film and the Department of Asian Studies at UBC.

Hannah Baek is an independent film programmer and educator. They received their MA in Regional Studies East Asia from Harvard, where they researched gender queerness in the “Dark Ages” of 1970s South Korean cinema. With special interests in Asian cinema, queer cinema, and animation, they teach film classes for adults and have curated for various film festivals, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, and the Harvard Film Archive. Currently, they work full time for the Seattle International Film Festival engaging the community through cinema.

A horror thriller, a political satire, a dysfunctional family comedy, and a touching melodrama, Bong Joon-ho’s The Host is also one helluva monster movie.

Jim Emerson, Chicago Sun-Times

A thrilling ride and a sometimes dry, sometimes sweet comedy, but beneath all that is a humane and tragic view of life worthy of the greatest films. Even those without rubber monsters.

Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

The movie pops up out of nowhere, grabs you in its big, messy tentacles, and drags you down into murky depths, where social satire coexists with slapstick, and B-movie clichés mutate into complex metaphors.

Dana Stevens, Slate