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The Host

The Host

(Gue-mool ), Bong Joon-ho / Korejská republika, 2006
119 min

An assistant at an American military base in South Korea gets an order to dump chemicals into the River Han. Six years later, a gigantic mutant lizard crawls out of the Seoul River leaving havoc and viral contagion behind it. Among the people afflicted by its rampage is a family that owns a refreshment stand, whose granddaughter the monster drags back to its foul lair. The girl manages to let her relatives know that she is still alive however. Her grandfather and her somewhat simple-minded father, cynical uncle, and aunt – an archery champion – therefore do whatever they can to save her. In his third film, director Bong Joon-ho puts a completely normal family into a situation that usually only super-heroes find themselves in, and manages to show the well-known tourist destination of the river banks in a completely different light. He thus creates a peculiar mix of monster film, family drama, political satire, and slapstick. (source: catalogue Karlovy Vary IFF)