With Memories of Murder and Mother director Joon-ho Bong has shown that he’s one of the best South Korean directors there is. In between these movies he made Gwoemul. Is Gwoemul (probably better known as The Host), a monster movie (literally) which confirms this again?
The setup of this movie is very simple.. In a mortuary lots of bottles with chemicals in them are emptied down the sink when the bottles can not be used anymore. The contents end up in the Han river and because of this pollution something starts to grow in the water. After a while people see something hanging from a bridge which drops down in the river, emerges from the water and starts causing panic. It starts eating people and nobody near the river is safe anymore.
Park Gang-Du (a fantastic role by the always amazing Kang-ho Song, who manages to put a lot of emotion into his role and the movie) sees how his daughter is grabbed by the monster and dragged into the water. Although he’s initially shown as a loser this event changes him and makes him want to hunt down the monster, hoping that his daughter is still alive. As the government has sealed off the area around the river and is putting everyone that came in contact with the monster in quarantine, it’s an extra obstacle in his search.
Gwoemul doesn’t take long to grab a hold of you. The monster appears within the first 15 minutes and once it does you are treated to non stop action and thrills. The monster itself is an ugly beast which looks realistic (thanks to the great effects work done by The Orphanage (which no longer exists)). I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish and really enjoyed this fantastic monster movie. I highly recommend it!
Score: 9
I love this. It’s got a lightness of touch and humour to it but nevertheless it’s full of emotional scenes and difficult choices for the characters to make. It’s a really we directed monster movie and, as you say, one of the key pieces of evidence for Bong being one of the best currently-working directors.
Yeah, he puts that humour in most of his movies which is sometimes very surprising and surreal but somehow he makes it work.
Glad to hear you also love this and gave it a properly high score. This is still the best creature film from South Korea, finger crossed that upcoming ‘Sector 7’ can give it a challenge.
Wow, missed these comments back in June! Never heard of Sector 7, but if it’s anything like this one I’m looking forward to it!
Yeah this is a great film and one of my firm favourites.
You have captured the essence of the film Nostra, really nice review.
Although I thought the cgi looked a little false in places, that cannot take away from a great film!!
C
Thanks for the compliments!
Unfortunately I wasn’t too impressed by The Host at all, I was expecting a lot more from it. I was so excited when it came out on DVD after I’d missed it at the cinema. Maybe I should give it another try, your review certainly makes me want to watch it again
I had no expectations going in and was blown away by it, totally cared for the characters and completely convinced by its premise.
Have you seen any other Korean movies? I love them so I’m always open for suggestions…