Released on the 27th of July 2006, this South Korean blockbuster had already been seen by over six million people by the morning of August the 6th 2006. By the 10th of September 2006 Bong Joon-Ho’s ‘The Host’ had been seen by over twelve and a half million people in Korea alone. Making it the highest grossing film in South Korean cinematic history.

Based around supposedly true events from six years earlier in which a U.S. military mortician dumped a large amount of formaldehyde down a sewer drain. After the discovery of this a large number of U.S. military bases were returned to South Korea whereupon they were found to be littered with poorly dumped toxic waste. A series of events that have caused both environmental problems and a seriously negative view of the American military within South Korean society.

From this dumped formaldehyde we get a tadpole mutation that has to be seen to be believed. With some of the best CGI I’ve seen in years provided by Kevin Rafferty (Star Wars), the monster that stalks the Han River and it’s bridges, is absolutely stand out.

The first five minutes of this movie come slow, with elements of suspense and humor and the unsettling feeling that you’re just about to be fucked by another goddamn useless monster movie. It builds and it builds and when the monster and the movie hit their stride this thing runs like Tank Girl landing on the bonnet of your car after smoking a big fat bag of crack and angry juice and it doesn’t fucking let up for the next twenty minutes.

At its heart, ‘The Host’ is a monster flick with some strong socially conscious morals. One that pays close respect to the greatest of its genre ‘Gojira’ (Godzilla) while at the same time managing nods to other classics of the genre such as ‘Q the winged Serpent’ and ‘Alligator’.

But its more than this, just when you think ‘The Host’ is going to allow itself to be pegged a straight out monster movie, it takes several swerves in content and genre that I’ve come to expect from sterling South Korean fare such as the stunning directorial debut of Joon-Hwan Jang, ‘Save the green Planet’.

My only problem with this movie is the hammering of its messages. The biggest of which is DO NOT MINDLESSLY FOLLOW AUTHORITY QUESTION IT DO NOT BE A SHEEP. While a good message, I did leave the film feeling slightly like someone had skull fucked me with a political manifesto. Something that can hamper a general feeling of satisfaction. I understand the need for these messages, if the truth wasn’t that alotta fuckers gotta learn the hard way then we wouldn’t have these messages throbbing through films. But they do and we do. So I guess; if this movie makes some poor drone somewhere take that broom handle and beat that corrupt policeman or politician into a permanent vegetative state where the only sign of life is the shit dribbling down his pajama leg to pool about the wheels of his chair or makes some jaded hooker finally strike back and cut that mark whose been beating her, cut him good and proper. Ye know the sort of cut, the one that looks like an extra smile. If this movie’s relentless message gives that back to the world, then I advocate it whole-heartedly.

3 Stars out of 5