"Bleak Anti-American Monster Movie"
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What You Need To Know:
THE HOST is well-made, but overlong. The length undermines the movie’s credibility, especially as the little girl’s family keeps hitting roadblock after roadblock. The special effects are first-rate, however. The ending to THE HOST is unnecessarily bleak. Adding to the bleak ending is the movie’s politically correct attack on America. Americans are the cause of the monster’s creation as well as the Korean family’s difficulties in saving the little girl, including the various tragedies they suffer.
Content:
(PaPa, EEE, Ro, B, PCPC, APAP, LL, VVV, N, A, D, M) Strong, somewhat mixed, ultimately bleak pagan, environmentalist worldview with Romantic elements about society, light moral elements about South Korean family, with some strong politically correct elements making American leaders, including military and international leaders, look bad and making an anti-American political statement, even though America has protected South Korea and its economy, including South Korean jobs, from totalitarian, neo-fascist Communist aggression for more than 50 years; 11 obscenities, including some “f” words, and four strong profanities; very strong violence with some blood includes rampaging amphibious monster chases and attacks people and spits out people to eat them later, images of goo and human skeletons, plus gunfire and explosions; no sex; upper male nudity in medical context; one or two references to alcohol use; brief smoking; and, lying.
More Detail:
THE HOST is a monster movie from South Korea that takes some potshots at the American leadership that has protected the people of that country from totalitarian Communist aggression for more than 50 years.
The movie opens with an American military scientist ordering a Korean scientist to dump gallons of toxic chemicals into the Han River. A monster, looking like a cross between a lizard, a dragon and a fish, rises out of the water. The monster kills many people along the riverfront and snatches Hyun-seo, the little daughter of lazy Gang-du, an irresponsible, somewhat dense young man.
Gang-du receives a cell phone call from his daughter indicating that she’s alive, so he and the rest of their family try to save her before the monster eats her. They are constantly stymied, however, by the local and international authorities, often led by clueless, lying, uncaring American doctors and bureaucrats. The authorities think that Gang-du’s exposure to the monster is helping to spread a mysterious virus, so they keep trying to place him and his other family members under quarantine. Helping Gang-du save Hyun-seo are the girl’s grandfather and Gang-du’s older brother and sister.
THE HOST is well-made, with some great action scenes, but overlong. The length undermines the movie’s credibility, especially as the little girl’s family keeps hitting roadblock after roadblock. The special effects are first-rate, however.
The ending to THE HOST is unnecessarily bleak. In fact, it seems downright wasteful, considering all the emotion the movie clearly asks viewers to invest in its sympathetic, heroic protagonists. Adding to the bleak ending is the movie’s politically correct attack on America. Americans are seen as the cause of the monster’s creation as well as the Korean family’s difficulties in saving the little girl, including the various tragedies they suffer in the middle and at the end. Of course, for more than 50 years, American lives and treasure have protected South Korea and its economy, including South Korean jobs, from totalitarian, neo-fascist Communist aggression (that doesn’t mean, naturally, that Americans and American officials are always angels). Apparently, some parts of South Korea have become a land full of ingrates.