Let’s see how you digest this: bottles and bottles of formaldehyde + river water = mutant creature! Yes, you are probably thinking the same thing as me, “what the f*ck?!”
So here’s how it all went down…
Last night, I was searching up Jang Jin-young and wikipedia led me from one thing to another. Eventually, I found myself looking at the page for a South Korean monster film, The Host. I saw that the director of the film was the same guy who directed Memories of Murder, which may I add, was a very good movie. Roughly scanning the plot line, I figured I could give this movie a shot. In summary, this movie is about two scientists who decide to pour many (I mean, A LOT OF) bottles of formaldehyde down the drain, which is connected to the Han River. Two years later, the movie pans to two people in the river who discover a mutant creature. Four years later, some guy wants to jump off a bridge and before he commits suicide, he mentions that something big and dark is under the water. Finally, in the present, there’s this family who owns this snack bar and one day this giant mutant creature jumps on land and either eats people on the spot or grabs them with his (?) tail and dumps them in a sewer for later (possibly dessert?). One of the people it grabs happens to be the snack bar family’s daughter. And so they begin a quest to find this creature and their daughter. Meanwhile, the government flips out and thinks the mutant carries a deadly virus.
With all of this confusion and mutant-ness, the movie is simply another science-fiction film. I’ll be blunt: this movie was a waste of my time. There was no “meat” in the plot. And I would have liked the film to have been slightly more realistic… come on… formaldehyde can turn into a mutant creature? The Human Centipede did better in the science film department. -_-
However, despite the fact that the plot was boring, repetitive, and unrealistically foolish, the graphics in this film are applaudable. It must have taken much effort and money to create the mutant creature thing and make it hop all over the place. Plus, that thing had a killer tail that whipped all over the place. So, I’ll give the film some credit in the graphics department. But that’s as far as it goes… well, and the drunk guy is pretty cute (Park Hae-il is the actor).
This film did receive good reception when it was first released, made it to several critics’ top ten list for best films of 2007, and was nominated for (even won!) several awards. Expect a sequel and an American remake. So, you decide for yourself if you want to watch this one, or skip it.
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