Hooptober Neun (2022) - Film #6
Films from 6 countries (South Korea); films from 8 decades (2000s)

This is the first Bong Joon-hi picture that I’ve seen. I’ve been aware that people would say I’ve been missing out, and I understand why after watching The Host.

It’s not really possible to slot this film neatly into one genre. There’s horror in here, there’s a fair bit of comedy, and there’s a lot of emotional drama. There’s a lot to take in here, discussions about how we treat the environment, American exceptionalism and how we view success and failure in life.

The cast are generally excellent here, but the stand out for me has to be the wonderfully engaging performance from Byun Hee-bong. Having never come across his work before I’m excited to watch more of his movies with Bong Joon-hi.

Early on, there’s some brilliant creature feature style action. I’d have loved to see more of this sort of scene throughout the movie, but I can’t really complain about what we got instead. There are a couple of scenes involving Song Kang-ho that were particularly moving and occasionally upsetting. His character is so built so sympathetically throughout that any suffering he endures is all the more impactful.

The CGI work here is of its time, and potentially not particularly excellent at the point either. However, it has its charms and is effective enough for what is needed. This is no Jaws-like situation where the creature is barely seen, and given our early and extensive exposure to the creature, there’s little mystery left in this area to unnerve.

As with many good creature based horror flicks, The Host gets us to question who the real monster is.