Review of The Host (2006) by Saurabh L — 02 Mar 2012

Usually when I watch a monster movie one thing I'm expecting the story to revolve is about the monster. That's not the case with The Host as the monster takes second seat to the story, and it works in it favor.

The Host is about a monster that emerges from Seoul's Han River and one victim's loving family does what it can to rescue Ko A-sung from its clutches. Now you don't have to wait like half an hour to see the monster which is both a good and bad thing. The build up really isn't good to reveal our monster so early and it's absent for most of the movie which is a disappointment for fans of the genre. The plot mostly revolves around a family trying to find the main protagonist missing daughter and has a political message. Seems unusual, but it does a good job making us believe that the real monster is the government. The story has a good mixture balance of drama and humor, though the political message is something that will definitely get mix response from people.

Now the effects for the monster itself are not bad, though it doesn't exactly come out menacing when compared to something like King Kong or even Gamera for matter. What I liked most is that this is one of the few times a monster movie actually has a talented actor in the lead role, and that person is Kang-ho Song. He's really puts allot of emotion and energy into his characters and he does a excellent job keeping our attention. One actor I enjoyed seeing was Stephen Chow, while he's only in a portion of the movie he's enjoyable.

The Host is a monster good monster movie that doesn't revolve around the monster itself to tell a good story. It's an unusual monster movie, but it's a good one too.