[The Host]

The host is a 2006 South Korean monster film, directed by Bong Joon-Ho. According to the Lee’s article, she mentions that the film touches on contemporary global political issues. For example, in the very beginning of the movie, an American military pathologist commands a reluctant Korean assistant to violate protocol by dumping over 200 bottles of formaldehyde down a drain which is leading to Han River. This is causes the creating of monster in Han River. I thought that it is possible that the US can violate protocol in reality since they have a part in Korean politics. But still we do not really know if they are actually acting like that and it was very sensitive issue to treat in the movie. Also, I thought that this movie criticizes the weakness and incompetence of Korean government. For example, on the news scene, they tell citizens that the US and WHO assumes that the Korean government cannot solve this problem, so they will involve and solve this problem. Even though the movie contains some critics, this movie “dominated the South Korean box office in the summer of 2006” (Lee. 47). It was biggest domestic hit and 13,010,000 people watched this movie. Later, it was released in other countries and it was very successful. I can also agree with the fact that the movie was a great success because before the host released, it was very hard to watch Korean movie in Canada, but the host was playing on several movie channels on TV. I was very surprised and very happy that the Korean movie was introducing to foreign audiences. Today, many Korean movies are targeting to global market and many Korean directors already released their Hollywood movie such as Snowpiercer by Bong Joon-Ho. I think that the success of host stimulated development in Korean movie and it was good start to globalize.