DVD
REVIEW: The Host
07/23/07
A monster movie with a plot?
Can you believe that? Well it’s true! The Host is the first monster
movie I’ve seen in a long time that has a plot, and, get
this, the plot is actually good. The movie begins with
Gang-Du doing what he does best: slacking off. He tends to
his father’s food shack by the Han River. Gang-Du doesn’t
seem to care much for life, and his relationship with his
daughter, Hyun-seo, is more friendly than parental. One day
by the Han River, a sea creature is spotted and everybody
runs to the edge of the river to see what it is. When the
sea creature leaps out of the water, all hell breaks loose
and everyone begins to run for their lives. In all the
commotion, Gang-Du mistakenly grabs the hand of another
child and Hyun-seo is taking by the sea creature. Gang-Du,
is left feeling the guilt that, his daughter’s dead, is all
his fault. Since the government believes the sea creature
has a virus, Gang-Du is quarantined. During his confinement,
Gang-Du’s hope is restored when he receives a call from
Hyun-seo. She explains that she is in the sewer before the
cell phone dies. Gang-Du tries to alert the authorities but
no one listens. Gang-Du and his dysfunction family made up
of: Nam-il(the Uncle), the unemployed college graduated,
Nam-Joo(the Aunt), the Olympia archer, and Hie-bong(the
Grandfather), the binding force that keeps the family
together, take up arms and arrive at the sewers ready to
search for Hyon-seo.
The thing that makes The Host such a delight to watch is
that it actually has characters that you care about. Hie-bong
played by Hie-bong Byeon, the grandfather, is amazing and
the care and compassion really comes through during this
performance. The special effects are nicely done, they do
not take away from the plot nor do they distract from it.
Simply said the special effect are their because they need
to be and not the other way around.
It is refreshing to see a monster movie that has the guts to
show its creature very early in the film. It takes a great
amount of confidence when you don’t have to rely on the
anticipation of seeing the creature and are able to create
tension and suspense via the characters and story alone.
Director Joon-Ho Bong has thrown a curve ball to the monster
movie genre. Hollywood take note!
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
AUDIO:
English & Korean Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby 2.0.
Subtitles English SDH & Spanish.
BONUS FEATURES:
Note: The DVD is loaded with
over four hours of special feature
DISC 1:
Deleted Scenes
Deleted News Clips
Director Bong Joon-Ho’s Reflections Joon-Ho’s
explains and apologizes to the actors why their scenes were
cut from movie.
DISC 2:
Making of the host:
Making of the Hosts with
Director Bong Joon-Ho
Storyboards
Bong Joon-Ho’s Direction
Memories of the sewer
Set Design
Physical Special Effects
Sound Effects
Composing the music
The Creature:
Conceptual Artwork
Designing the creature
Bringing the creature to life
Building the creature
Puppet Animatronix
Animating the Creature
Why did it do that?
The Crew:
The Staff
The production team
Visual Effects Supervisor
The Cast:
Casting Tapes
Training the actors
The Extras
Monster Appeal
Main cast interviews
Additional cast interviews
Extras - Casting tapes
Gag Reel: Feature some funny scenes with CGI.
Saying Goodbye: The cast and crew say their
goodbyes
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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| BONUS
FEATURES |
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Review
By Milton Brayson
milton@smartcine.com
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