Down by the river

The line up at Frightfest 2006 last month was a bit underwhelming and at £11 per film I decided to give it a miss this year. There were just two films that I really wanted to catch; Pan's Labyrinth and South Korean hit The Host.

Good things come to those who wait. The Host was shown in London on Friday night at the Renoir, Brunswick Square, as part the Asian Firecracker Showcase Film Festival. Advertised as starting at 9PM, Musty MC and I finished off a HOT curry at the appropriately named Hot Chilli restaurant and, recovering, ambled down the stairs into the depths of the Renoir. The film had already started, luckily we hadn't missed much and we settled in at the back.


The Host starts in wry comic fashion introducing a family that runs a food stall on a bank of the Seoul's Han river. There's a young girl, her dim-witted father and her grandfather. People are enjoying the sunshine, having picnics, playing ball or walking along the river. All of a sudden a mutant amphibious monster climbs out of the water and starts chomping on them! Panic ensues and the little girl is grabbed by the creature who takes her off to its sewer lair for later consumption.

Will the rest of the family be able to find and save her? Their task being made that much harder by the Military and the imposition of a quarantine. What caused the monster and how will it be dealt with?

The Host is a fun monster movie with knobs on; The CGI realisation of the monster is tremendous, the way it moves around, runs, swims and swings is highly original. I really like the fact that the monster has no agenda other than to grab people and eat them. The film is well acted, with some strong emotional family drama, comedy and suspense scenes mixed in with the action. The plot takes you in surprising non-formulaic directions and there's even a bit of social commentary with some heavy digs at the Government and U.S. Army for real life environmental malpractice.

The Koreans in the Renoir audience loved it, laughing throughout and giving it a round of applause as the end credits rolled. It was obvious to me that I wasn't able to pick up on some of the humor and cultural references in The Host but I still enjoyed it immensely. Certainly one to view again when it is released on DVD.

Official home page and trailer