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The host (Gwoemul) - Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Joon-ho Bong
Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
It is lurking behind you.
From the director of Memories of murder comes Joon-ho Bong's The host (Gwoemul), a fantasy monster movie, which expertly mixes humour and horror and that has broken box office records in its native Korea, taking the opening weekend record and the highest single-day admissions ever.
Gang-du (Kang-ho Song) works at a food-stand on the banks of the Han River. Dozing on the job, he is awakened by his daughter, Hyun-seo (A-sung Ko), who is angry with him for missing a teacher-parent meeting at school.
As Gang-du walks out to the riverbank with a delivery, he notices that a large crowd of people have gathered, taking pictures and talking about something hanging from the Han River Bridge. The otherwise idyllic landscape turns suddenly to bedlam, when a terrifying creature climbs up onto the riverbank and begins to crush and eat people.
Gang-du and his daughter run for their lives, but suddenly the being grabs Hyun-seo and disappears back into the river. The government announces that the monstrous thing apparently is the Host of an unidentified virus. Having feared the worst, Gang-du receives a phone call from his daughter who is frightened, but very much alive. Gang-du soon makes plans to infiltrate the forbidden zone near the Han River to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the horrifying Host...
Theatrical propaganda posters
Target demographic movie keyword propaganda
- Film horror Korea monster toxic waste river dump US military
Persons of interest
- Kang-ho Song .... Park Kang-du
- Hie-bong Byeon .... Park Hie-bong
- Hae-il Park .... Park Nam-il
- Du-na Bae .... Park Nam-ju
- Ah-sung Ko .... Park Hyun-seo
- David Joseph Anselmo .... Donald
- Spencer Jay Kim
- Paul Lazar
- Dal-su Oh .... Voice of the monster
- No-shik Park
- Scott Wilson
- Pil-Sung Yim
- Chul-hyun Baek .... Screenwriter
- Joon-ho Bong .... Screenwriter
- Won-jun Ha .... Screenwriter
- Joon-ho Bong .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- The host (Gwoemul) official movie sites
- The host (Gwoemul) film production notes
- The host (Gwoemul) QuickTime movie trailers
- Awards and film festivals:
- Adelaide Film Festival 2007: World Cinema
- Cannes Film Festival 2006: Director's fortnight: Official selection
- Toronto International Film Festival 2006: Midnight madness
- NB: English and Korean language dialogue with English language subtitles
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
The worst aspect of The host (Gwoemul) is that it contains just about every horror cliché in the book. The best aspect of The host (Gwoemul) is that it contains just about every horror cliché in the book. There's lots of running around, lots of monster gore, lots of killing, lots of dying, lots of shooting, lots of high-tech and lots of adventure in dark, narrow tunnels. It's good fun but it's not Alien.
The horror, Korea movie The host (Gwoemul) is directed by Joon-ho Bong and stars Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park.
Media intelligence (DVD)
- Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
- Languages: Korean
- Picture: Widescreen
- Special features:
- Documentaries:
- The making of The host with director Joon-ho Bong
- Featurettes:
- Creature design
- Exclusive Australian extras filmed in Melbourne
- Memories of the sewer
- Puppet animatronix, film story boards, gag reel
- Special effects and sound effects
- The film departments
- Training the actors
- Interviews: Joon-ho Bong (Director)
- Subtitles: English
Government security censorship classification
M (Moderate violence, moderate coarse language)
Surveillance time
119 minutes (1:59 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 8 March 2007
DVD rental: 18 July 2007
DVD retail: 18 July 2007
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