The Host (film)

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Movie
German title The host
Original title Gwoemul
Country of production South Korea
original language Korean
English
Publishing year 2006
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Bong Joon-ho
script Baek Chul-hyun ,
Bong Joon-ho ,
Ha Won-jun
production Choi Yong-bae ,
Jeong Tae-seong ,
Kim Woo-Taek
music Lee Byung-woo
camera Kim Hyung-ku
cut Kim Seon-Min
occupation

The Host ( kor. 괴물 , Gwoemul ) is a 2006 South Korean film directed by Bong Joon-ho . The film is a mix of monster film, family drama, comedy and social satire. With over 13 million viewers (with just under 48 million inhabitants), it became the most popular South Korean film of all time, dethroned The King and the Clown from the ranking and received numerous film awards. In Germany, the film opened in cinemas on March 29, 2007.

action

In 2000, at a US military base, a Korean intern reluctantly dumped formaldehyde into the Han River on the orders of the American pathologist . This creates a mutated monster in the river. In 2006, this lizard-like monster attacked people on the "river promenade" in Seoul , killing and eating them or taking them with him for later consumption. Among other things, the monster kidnaps the young Hyun-seo, who shortly afterwards finds herself in a shaft in the sewer system in Seoul, which serves as “food supply” for the monster. All the other people down there are dead.

The army seals off the river area completely. Since the state is assuming the risk of a virus epidemic, it is unceremoniously quarantining everyone who has had contact with the monster . Among them is Hyun-seo's family: Her often dozing father Kang-doo, her aunt, the archer Nam-ju, her drinking uncle Nam-il, who is unemployed despite graduation, and her grandpa Hie-bong. During the night, Kang-doo received a call from his daughter Hyun-seo, who told him that she was in a large shaft. However, the authorities do not believe him that his daughter is still alive and the police do not bother to trace the call. Therefore, the parks are fleeing the hospital, entering the exclusion zone and searching the canals around the Han River. They meet the monster that kills Grandpa Hie-bong. In the end, the remaining family takes on the direct battle with the monster. Nam-il throws Molotov cocktails , Nam-ju sets the monster on fire with a burning arrow and Hyun-seo's father kills the monster with a traffic sign pole. However, the Hyun-seo family can only recover dead. A little orphan boy who was trapped in the sewer with Hyun-seo and whom she took care of as a mother survives the final battle. From now on he lives with Kang-doo, who continues the business of his slain father.

background

The monster is a symbol that can be assigned various meanings. It could stand for the USA. The beginning of the film alludes to a scandal that occurred in 2000. At that time, the US military emptied over 100 liters of toxic substances into the Han River. The visual effects were created by the US company The Orphanage , among others .

criticism

The German-speaking film critics favorably reviewed The Host . The director Bong Joon-ho, said the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , had succeeded in making a “gripping, multi-layered, funny and enjoyable film, and in its social analysis even clever, which will not only convince genre lovers.” The film dienst called the film “ a malicious, ironic and intelligent satire on contemporary South Korean society, a fresh 'comédie humaine' that is second to none - on the other hand, many other films look old. ”The Hamburger Abendblatt found that he was“ enormously playful and bristling with overflowing imagination ” "Quite silly", but on the whole very entertaining.

In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Andreas Platthaus explained that it was not an "aesthetic virtuoso piece" in the manner of Kim Ki-duk or Park Chan-wook , but rather a "straightforward monster film in the best Far Eastern style". Bong Joon Ho masterfully stages subtle shock moments and shows in some breathtaking scenes “maximum efficiency of the cinematic and narrative means. No detail is too much here. ”He also knows how to“ play delicious jokes with horror ”. Certainly not a comedy, the film contains "some of the most successful comedic scenes of recent years". “In contrast, history, tricks and camera work are conceivably conventional, yes, downright conservative. But that is exactly what contributes to the pleasant feeling of watching a film here that is shot in the spirit of good entertainment. Such cinema experiences, which are not based on effects but on narrative talent and wit, hardly exist today. ”The greatest achievement consists in“ creating pure pleasure with a horror material. That is what Bongs Film has ahead of all its predecessors and role models. "

The world critic Sascha Westphal saw in "corrupt officials and unscrupulous state power" a reminiscence of the South Korean military dictatorship in the 1980s. The quarreling, disintegrated family stands for Korea, which is divided into north and south. Director Bong is a “political filmmaker through and through”, for him politics is “not just a question of content, but also a question of form. The initial contrast between the idyllic scenes and the chaos couldn't be greater and is characteristic of the entire film. Bong undermines any form of unity and cohesion by wildly mixing melodramatic with political, slapstick with horror, and silly with profoundness. Everything in 'The Host' has its time and its moment, and once you've accepted that, it develops downright revolutionary potential. "

Dietmar Kammerer wrote in the taz that the monstrous thing about the monster is that it contains several monsters: the great white shark , whose habitat is the water, King Kong , who rages in the city and kidnaps young girls, and Godzilla , the product of one man-made ecological disaster. But the real opponents of the family are the military, the police, doctors and scientists, among whom there is "none who, through corruption, incompetence, megalomania or sheer stupidity, could not turn a bad situation into a catastrophic one." The state organs first and foremost sought control the population: "For this purpose, everyone can be declared a 'host': a host body that carries harmful viruses, subversive thoughts or subversive intentions." The plot avoids clumsy changes from pathetic characters to heroes, as in other films of the Genres. If a film “fits and does not fit into the categories of horror film, slapstick, political satire, family drama - then 'The Host' is more than just a film about a monster: it is the monster itself.”

Sven-Eric Wehmeyer calls The Host the best monster film of the year, if not more. The film “demonstrate, in its almost experimental anti-dramaturgy and pervaded by strangely unpredictable irony, how to create an original, clever, political and, in an emphatic sense, contemporary-modern work of art from completely unoriginal ingredients.” Wehmeyer finds this a matter of course of the unrealistic monster in a realistic setting and draws comparisons to Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro .

Some critics have commented on the fact that Hollywood bought the rights to remake the material. In the NZZ the prognosis was: “It can almost only get worse.” The Hamburger Abendblatt recommended not to wait for it, and the taz speculated: “The special effects will then be sure (and unnecessarily) more perfect, the gallows humor probably more stale and biting Criticism of the American military will be sought in vain. "

Review mirror

These seven reviews were all positive about the film:

Awards (selection)

Saturn Awards 2006

Empire Awards 2007

Fantastic postage 2007

  • Winner of the International Fantasy Film Award in the Best Director category

Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya 2007

  • Best Special Effects Award Winner
  • Orient Express Award for Bong Joon-ho

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Volker Behrens: Shrill adventures with a strange family . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , p. 8
  2. ↑ a b Jörg Buttgereit: The Host . In: epd Film No. 3/2007, p. 37
  3. ^ A b Sascha Westphal: Korean Monster . In: Die Welt , March 29, 2007, p. 29
  4. ^ A b Rüdiger Suchsland: The Host . In: film-dienst No. 7/2007, p. 30
  5. ^ A b T. Brockmann: The Host. The depths of the Han River . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 19, 2007, p. 39
  6. ↑ Andreas Platthaus : Terror on the stream . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 28, 2007, p. 35
  7. ↑ a b Dietmar Kammerer: Monster hunt in gym shorts . In: taz , March 29, 2007, p. 15
  8. ^ A b Sven-Eric Wehmeyer: The Han monster. In: diezukunft.de. December 7, 2009. Retrieved August 27, 2017 .

Web links