Provokingly Pathetic

the Host

Extra ordinary Monster Movie

This movie provoked me, made me feel uncomfortable, made me suffer and most of all made me think. This movie works on much more levels than just a monster running around and eating people.

The monster

The monster is definitely a central character but not one of its stars. We meet the monster very early in the film and it appears throughout. It’s an interesting fish type mutant thingy that can swallow people whole. However, it may have a small stomach because it spits whole bodies out into a drain so that it can come back later and eat them (not very nice hey).

The monster has some character, it seems to know what it is doing and it’s good at what it does best, causing havoc and eating people.

The family

All members of the main family are absolutely and embarrassingly pathetic apart from one exception. There is Grandpa who owns the snack shop by the side of the river. He puts his grown up kids to sleep recounting his theory as to why his son (their brother) is so stupid and pathetic.

The failed college graduate. One of the sons comes back to the family because of the crises which I will explain later. He has been to Uni but is unemployed. He seems to loathe this brother who is really stupid and pathetic.

Then there is the younger sister who is an archery champion who missed out on a gold medal because she took long to take her shot and ended up with bronze.

The stupid son is also the father of the only real unpathetic hero in this film who is his primary school age daughter.

The school girl is the least dysfunctional person in the film and I’m sorry to say this she gets eaten and dies in the end. That is why I said this film is provoking.

The Americans

Basically the Americans are to blame for this fiasco in the first place. It’s an American who orders the spilling of toxic chemicals into the river.

American reaction to the crisis is pathetic, impotent and laughable. They are responsible for making people believe that a virus is spreading because of the monster and try and quarantine everyone who has been in contact with the monster which includes our anti hero family.

The director is clearly saying something about Korea’s view of Americans with respect to the monster of North Korea and the impotent role for all these years. Perhaps Koreans see the Americans as not really helping and maybe as getting in the way.

The Crises

Stupid father grabs his daughters hand to help her escape the on coming monster only to find that he has grabbed another girls hand. What makes this worse is the monster takes his daughter away and deposits her in the drain. They are quarantined but she manages to ring her father and tells him she is trapped in the drain. From then on the pathetic family dysfunctionally works together to rescue their niece. They have to escape medical staff and the Americans. The stupid father is recaptured; Grandpa gets killed by the monster because his stupid son miscounted how many bullets he had left in the gun. Stupid son gets his brain drilled into by medical staff trying to find the virus. College student gets chased and nearly dies falling down some sort of cliff/bridge. The archery girl finds where the drain is but gets nearly eaten.

The resolution

Somehow despite how pathetic and dysfunction this family is they still manage to kill the monster which essentially the Koreans and American could not deal with.

The end

In the end the school girl sacrifices herself it seems to save a younger boy who was deposited into her drain. The stupid father takes him in and they seem to have come through this traumatic experience as much more normal than they were before the crises.

Thought provoking

Within the crises the members of each family become noble. Grandpa is brave and dies for his family, college students has a key role in killing the monster, the archery sister shoots the monster in the eye with a flaming arrow and stupid father finishes the monster off and goes onto lead a normal life despite what he has been through.

Our Monster

We will never have to face a mutant fish monster (I hope) but we all experience crises in our lives, we are all dysfunctional and we can’t always depend on officials and the government to help us. A crisis is an opportunity to show your true qualities. Whether it’s ill health, losing our job, not being able to pay the bills, our inability to shake off an addiction we all are afflicted by a monster that turns our lives upside down. Let’s emulate the little school girl who was so brave and self sacrificial.

The greatest Monster

The greatest of all monsters is death itself. Every one of us will face it some day. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and leads the way for all those who have faith in him to escape this monster for ever. Though we will have to pass through its jaws we will not end up in its stomach but rather in the arms of God himself forever. Jesus Christ is the master of monster slayers.

Score 3.5 Stars

I give this movie 3.5 stars because though it was painful to watch it was not a very forgettable film. I found myself thinking about the story, the characters and my own life. That is why this blog is so long. So a movie that provokes you to think in this way is not all that bad after all.

Be warned this film is not for the faint hearted. the Rev