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The Host (Gwoemul) (2006)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 145
Fresh: 134 | Rotten: 11

As populace pleasing as it is intellectually satisfying, The Host combines scares, laughs, and satire into a riveting, monster movie.

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 2

As populace pleasing as it is intellectually satisfying, The Host combines scares, laughs, and satire into a riveting, monster movie.

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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 169,525

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Movie Info

When a young girl is snatched away from her father by a horrifying giant monster that emerges from the River Han to wreak havoc on Seoul, her entire family sets out to locate the beast and bring their little girl back home to safety in South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's big-budget creature feature. Hee-bong is a man of modest means who runs a snack bar on the banks of the River Han. Along with his slow-witted eldest son, Gang-du; Gang-du's young daughter, Hyun-seo; archery champion daughter

R, 1 hr. 59 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Horror, Art House & International, Comedy

Directed By: Joon-ho Bong

Written By: Hah Joon-won, Baek Chul-hyun

In Theaters: Mar 9, 2007 Wide

On DVD: Jul 24, 2007

Box Office:$2.0M

Magnolia Pictures

The Host (Gwoemul) Trailer & Photos

More Photos (12)

Cast

Critic Reviews for The Host (Gwoemul)

All Critics (148) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (143) | Rotten (12) | DVD (33)

As ebullient and bizarre as a monster that can do back flips, leaving the viewer in a shock of delight.

April 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

A horror thriller, a political satire, a dysfunctional family comedy, and a touching melodrama, Bong Joon-ho's The Host is also one helluva monster movie.

April 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Jim Emerson

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Bravely shifting tones from the horrific to the slapstick and back again, Bong Joon-ho has made a movie that's comprised almost equally of family sitcom, political indictment, high-urban paranoia and maximum-geek, monster-movie delight.

March 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment

Geoff Pevere

Toronto Star

Top Critic

Maybe this is actually a treatise on the dissonance between East and West, science and nature, promise and tragedy. Nah. It's just a dumb, crappy horror movie that wants to be celebrated as such.

March 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit News

| Comments (17)

Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

The film's limber and inventive director Joon-ho Bong keeps The Host creeping and leaping for its entire two hours, which are filled with incident after incident, alternately terrifying, ridiculous, suspenseful and wry.

March 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press

| Comment

Terry Lawson

Detroit Free Press

Top Critic

Individual stories bog down the film's pace, but The Host recovers quickly to redefine horror for the new millennium. This you have to see.

March 16, 2007 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

A livid bureaucratic satire, berserk creature feature and surprisingly somber drama, "The Host" is a convulsive, wild ride - simultaneously eliciting squirms and giggles by mashing up finger-pointing anger with "The Thing's" wiseass wickedness.

September 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com

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Nick Rogers

Suite101.com

A pleasant reminder of the pleasures in the low-budget quickly made monster B-film of the 1950s.

August 10, 2010 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A subversive blast

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion

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Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

South Korean creature feature is wild and witty.

July 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

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Cynthia Fuchs

Common Sense Media

This monster movie from the Republic of Korea is one of the best films of its kind.

July 14, 2008 Full Review Source: ESplatter

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Steve Biodrowski

ESplatter

Minor flaws in a film destined to be embraced by genre fans worldwide.

June 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Metromix.com

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Geoff Berkshire

Metromix.com

A fantastic satire/monster movie

January 29, 2008 Comment

Stefan Birgir Stefansson

sbs.is

Imagine Little Miss Sunshine and Alien mixed together and you'll have an inkling of what South Korea's The Host has in store for you.

January 18, 2008 Comment

Beth Accomando

KPBS.org

Ako se zanemari politi%u010Dka pozadina, "Doma%u0107in" funkcionira kao vrlo dobar akcijski horor.

September 28, 2007 Full Review Source: Index.hr

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Dragan Antulov

Index.hr

A rather tender-hearted, often sorrowful, more often hilarious view on the familial conflicts between generations and between siblings.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy

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Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Joon-ho Bong effectue un pied de nez pour le moins renversant � une formule attribuant ordinairement une force psychologique surhumaine � ses protagonistes

September 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Panorama

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Jean-Fran�ois Vandeuren

Panorama

Think Godzilla, but with better special effects and better all-around filmmaking

August 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Habit

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Marty Mapes

Movie Habit

...a fairly old-fashioned creature feature with a few uplifting human touches, made all the better for its added visual and sonic delights. (HD DVD Edition)

August 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

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John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

If the slow pacing and gawky acting seem typical of low-budget monster movies, so much the better.

August 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Host (Gwoemul)

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This was a top notch monster movie and even though the dubbing was pretty bad and it more than likely added to the confusion it was a pretty solid thrill ride.

May 11, 2008

John Manard

Super Reviewer

Just....awesome! A great monster film with its own subtle sense of humour to it. Bong Joon-Ho's direction is superb, which shows in the way he directs some of the most intense monster attack scenes I've seen and providing us with a few memorable shots. This is not only one of my favourite monster movies, it might be

July 1, 2011