[The Host] What makes it different from other blockbuster films?

The Host is about a monster that is found in the Han River. The film gets into a climax when it starts eating civilians who get near the river. What the strange thing about the creature is however that it is not a typical beast but a complicated one with a complicated meaning. The film begins with a scene set in a dark lab where US officers order Korean officers to discard many bottles of toxic liquid in the Han River. Two years later, two fishermen find a disgusting shaped tiny mutant creature in the river, and it took me a while to figure out the bigger meaning of the film as a whole. Grafting droll humor and sly political commentary onto the DNA of an unrealistic creature, director Bong criticized the real incident in 2000 in which the American military dumped a large amount of chemicals down the drain. The film not only depicts a political commentary about the U.S. but also about the incompetence of the Korean government. A monsters or a beast devouring humans is a mythical/fantastical creature we often see through animation, but the one portrayed here appears in the real world and its presence has a deeper meaning. While post-Shiri hits have touched on historical traumas such as cold war, 1980 Kwangju Massacre, because of the shared historical memories and social issues, such films are identified by domestic audiences as cultural texts embodying the nation. (Lee, 50) However, the Host does not draw on nationalism of the Korean nation. Before I watched it, I had expected that it would be just one of the typical horrifying monster movies, but the Host was more about the characters and their situation than the monster itself, as the article also states the film “centers more on social issues than special effects” (Lee, 55) It was also visually stimulating that the film was well balanced with excitement and tension. its effect made it possible to break all box-office records in Korea’s history.