Click to read the article
The Host (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:141
Fresh:130
Rotten:11
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: As populace pleasing as it is intellectually satisfying, The Host combines scares, laughs, and satire into a riveting, monster movie.
Theatrical Release:Mar 9, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $2,010,000
Synopsis: The talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival, THE HOST, the latest film from critically acclaimed visionary director BONG Joon-ho, has already garnered a substantial amount of... The talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival, THE HOST, the latest film from critically acclaimed visionary director BONG Joon-ho, has already garnered a substantial amount of international buzz. Utilizing state-of-the-art special effects courtesy of a creative partnership between Weta Workshop (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings) and The Orphanage (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sin City), THE HOST is equal parts creature-feature thrill ride and poignant human drama. Gang-du (SONG Kang-ho) works at a food-stand on the banks of the Han River. Dozing on the job, he is awakened by his daughter, Hyun-seo ( KO A-sung), 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 has 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 thing grabs Hyun-seo and disappears back into the river. The government announces that the 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 makes plans to infiltrate the forbidden zone near the Han River to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the horrifying Host... --© Magnolia Pictures [More]
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Byun Hee-bong, Bae Hae-il, Bae Doo-na
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Byun Hee-bong, Bae Hae-il, Bae Doo-na, Ko A-sung
Director: Oh Bong-Joon
Director: Oh Bong-Joon
Screenwriter: Hah Joon-won, Baek Chul-hyun
Producer: Choi Yong-bae
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Get This Movie
Reviews for The Host
Bong still offers a powerful rejoinder to his Hollywood counterparts: Anything you can do, I can do better.
You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll jump, you’ll ask Hollywood for your money back. Seek it out.
Retains a quirky charm that cannot be discounted. Recommended not just for what it achieves, but for what it attempts to.
Bong's supreme achievement is that he has made his many messages fun.
If this madly entertaining movie has a fault, it's that it's too ingenious for the genre it ostensibly inhabits.
What a pleasure to watch an ambitious horror film that not only frightens but also surprises and engages us completely with its artful shifting of tones.
Boon's film is both funny and heartbreaking, a supremely confident mix of political satire, free-floating paranoia, fractured family dynamics and the kind of comedy that regularly reconfigures itself into tragedy.
A great piece of filmmaking and a legitimate science-fiction/horror classic.
The problem with the film is that the sum isn't greater than the parts and the pieces don't fuse in a way that's consistently pleasing or cinematically satisfying.
Bong Joon-ho's The Host is the best kind of genre film, a movie that delivers the conventions audiences expect from a horror flick while also offering surprising new variations on the formula.
The Host is wildly entertaining; people who love the genre will get their geek buttons pushed hard by this flick. But what makes the movie an instant classic is that it's also, in its dark heart, a furious lampoon.
The Host is a loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within.
The Host is a horror movie with a difference. South Korea's biggest box-office hit ever, the thriller -- by director-writer Bong Joon-ho -- is a fantastical genre-buster.
Bong Joon-ho's cheerfully outrageous monster movie is set to attain instant cult status.
Packed with politics, family conflict and satiric references to some of the more absurd aspects of Korean cinema, The Host never forgets to be a scary, icky, over-the-top fright fest, either.
Monster movies tend to be as misunderstood as their creatures, but dating back to 1931's Frankenstein, some haven't been about scaring us so much as enlightening us. The Host does this while disgorging a lizardlike carnivore.
Latest News for The Host
September 02, 2009:
First Look: The Host 2 ![]()
Eager for an early glimpse of one of the monsters you'll see in "The Host 2"? Twitch has what you're looking for. More...
March 18, 2009:
Bong Joon-ho Discusses Upcoming Projects ![]()
Director Bong Joon-ho isn't involved with the upcoming sequel to his hit monster movie "The Host," but he does have a number of other projects in the pipeline -- including "an... More...
November 19, 2008:
The Host Is Coming to America ![]()
According to Bong Joon-ho, director of "The Host," Universal has purchased the American rights to his film, and the studio is planning a remake for U.S. audiences. More...
June 26, 2008:
The Host 2 Filming in Early '09 ![]()
Director Ning Hao will helm and script a Chinese sequel to the Korean box-office smash The Host, scheduled to film early next year. More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
| 63% 63% | Extract |
| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.

What were your favorites? Least favorites? The funniest and scariest? Moviefone wants to know!

Hollywood.com explores why QT's characters resonate so well with audiences.

TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.

Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic



