西洋오랑캐

Last night…or more correctly this morning, Jinhui and I trekked over to our local movie theater and checked out the latest Korean blockbuster, 괴물 (which for some reason is known as “The Host” in English). I knew very little about the film before checking it out, aside from the fact that there was a monster in it and the dude from 살인의 추억 was in it and had blonde hair.

Anyhow the film began, and in the first scene of the film we see the reason for the titular monster’s existance. Some cold-hearted bastard of a USFK scientist is telling his Korean lackey to dump a bunch of chemicals down the drain in the sink. The lackey’s protests that the chemicals will go into the Han River go unheard and we later see the lackey dumping bottle after bottle down the drain and a slow pan of a ton more empty bottles.

“Oh no, is this film going to be totally anti-American?” I thought to myself.

But it wasn’t. I mean the fact that aside from the monster being the result of the American Forces, the film focused very little on the Americans. Additionally when the monster first attacked there was a scene in which the only person to attack the monster or attempt to save people (aside from the main character) was a white guy…which is pretty safe to assume was playing an American in the film. All in all, it’s quite possible that the original Godzilla (which this film should at least tip it’s hat too) had more anti-Americanism than this film. More than bad political elogies, the movie focused more on fairly disfunctional family coming together against an incredible obstacle.

Anyhow I thought the film was pretty outstanding. Unlike a lot of other giant monster movies that have a lot of boring build-up, this film had instant giant monster gratification. Within the first ten minutes of the film, the monster was killing crap. That’s what I’m talking about! When I see a giant monster movie (Godzilla, 불가사리, ect.) I want to see a monster wrecking everything. I don’t want to see “scientists” sitting around talking about how they can stop the monster. Here we had very little of that nonsense.

From a technical stand point the film was very well made. Casting was on point. Far too often do shows and movies not only here, but in America as well, cast way too good looking twenty year olds to play middle school or high school students. This film finally got it right in casting a dumpy, middle school aged girl to play…a middle aged girl.

And for a last bit, computer animation in Korean films has gotten much better in the short time I’ve lived in the country. Save for the very last scene featuring the monster, the animation is top notch (a far cry from the computer animated airplanes in Welcome to Domakgol).

In conclusion if you like giant monsters, the Han River, and moltov cocktails, check out 괴물!!