The Host

2006 ‘괴물’ Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Monsters are real

Gang-du is a dim-witted man working at his father's tiny snack bar near the Han River. Following the dumping of gallons of toxic waste in the river, a giant mutated squid-like appears and begins attacking the populace. Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo is snatched up by the creature and he and his family are taken into custody by the military, who fear a virus spread by the creature. In detention, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo, who is not dead, merely trapped in a sewer. With his family to assist him, he sets off to find Hyun-seo.

Song Kang-ho Byun Hee-bong Park Hae-il Bae Doo-na Go Ah-sung Oh Dal-su Lee Jae-eung Lee Dong-ho Yoon Je-moon Kim Roi-ha Park No-sik Koh Soo-hee Yim Pil-sung David Anselmo Scott Wilson Paul Lazar Brian Lee Yoo Yeon-soo Kim Choo-wol Lee Eung-jae Lee Seung-jin Moon Hee-ra Yoo Seung-mok Sung Yeol-seok Lee Jong-yoon Park No-shik Philip Hersh Clinton Morgan Ra Mi-ran Show All…

Alternative Titles

O Hospedeiro, グエムル-漢江の怪物-, Gwoemul, Вторжение динозавра, المضيف

science fiction horror drama

120 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★★ 30

(No explicit spoilers, but spoiler-sensitive readers should watch the movie first and come back later.)
A monstrous crisis in South Korean national identity.
On the surface, The Host looks a lot like any other monster movie. It showcases an evil beast hell-bent on the destruction of the local population. And yet, even here director Joon-ho Bong refuses the conventions of the genre he’s working within. He shows us the monster right from the start (almost in the first scene) and almost always in broad daylight rather than hiding the special effects in dark nighttime shots. Rather than glorifying the monster’s destruction (the disaster porn model) or reveling in the fear it creates (the horror model), he pitches the film at…
Review by brat pitt ★★★½

“Director Joon-ho Bong and the designer of the creature nicknamed it Steve Buscemi, based on the actor's screen persona and the way he acted in the movie Fargo (1996).”
PLEASE let my dude steve LIVE for ONCE in his LIFE!!!!!!!!
Review by davidehrlich ★★★★½

All of Bong Joon-ho’s movies are about monsters, some more literally than others. In “Memories of Murder,” the monster is the boogeyman, ripped from the headlines and hiding in the darkness. In “Snowpiercer,” the monster is the abstract force of capitalism, rotting us from the inside out as we eat each other to survive and maintain some semblance of order at the end of the world. And in “The Host,” the wild 2006 genre mash-up that firmly established Bong as a creative force of nature and afforded him the cache to make “Mother” in 2009, the monster is… well, it’s an actual fucking monster, with slimy skin and a prehensile tail and a sweet tooth for small children.
The special…
Review by maria ★★★★ 5

why am i crying over a monster movie, bong joon-ho you have done it again!
Review by Ciara ★★★★½ 22

What do you do if you're Bong Joon-ho and you've just made Memories of Murder, one of the single most devastating portrayals of police brutality and serial killers ever put to screen? (seriously, my eyes are welling up thinking about it. Watch it.)
The answer is go for an insane comedy-drama monster movie about a fucked up family who're on a mission to hunt down a monster causing mayhem and murder on the banks of the Han river in Seoul.
Throw in some clever political commentary about police incompetence in Korea, the US military's flippantly arrogant policies abroad (and how the Korean government typically kowtows to them), and government bunglings in general for good measure.
Test the family at every…
Review by karen h. ★★★★★ 1

perfect movie
Review by 👽 Zara 👽 ★★★★½ 2

the real virus is america amirite folks
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 2

The premise of chemicals being dumped into the Han river is based on a real event! And the public at large was in a full blown outrage over it! While it's part social commentary and part moral tale about the dangers of harming our natural environment it also delves into humor in its portrayal of a dysfunctional family that ultimately comes together risking it all to save the young daughter of Park Gang-Doo (Kang-ho Song)!
I found it particularly amusing that the creature was nicknamed Steve Buscemi by Director Joon-ho Bong and the creature designer! Apparently they were impressed by his role in Fargo and felt he was the ideal villain to base their creature on! Personally I don't see any resemblance to Steve Buscemi be it looks, actions or persona other than the fact they both have some wild and wooly eyes!
Review by Taylor Williams ★★★★ 2

The best way to describe this movie is that the American scientist ordering his assistant to pour formaldehyde down the drain is more jarring than a monster popping out of the river and killing people. It’s whacky and stupid but subversive and biting, and while the beginning had me a little unsure of how to feel about the tonal blend, it developed into something really neat.
Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★★ 7

The history between Korea and the United States predates the Korean war itself (1950-1953), which implied the invasion executed by North Korea, with the aid of China and the Soviet Union, against South Korea, the latter having United States as the principal force through the provision of approximately 88% of the military personnel of the United Nations. It even goes back to the Cairo Conference of 1943, where the United States, the United Kingdom and China decided "in due course Korea shall become free and independent." However, to talk about The Host, directed by Joon-ho Bong, responsible for one of the most pervasively complete crime and detective procedural movies ever made, compels the reviewer to at least reference briefly the…
Review by Robert Macías ★★★★ 1

Bong Joon-ho really likes to take us on a ride eh? This is the monster movie that has so much to say and the craziest part is that, dated CGI aside, it feels fresh and shockingly familiar to what we’re seeing when we turn on the tv or dare venture outside for some necessities. There’s no giant squid-like creature out there snatching us up but the hysteria is still there and that crosswalk scene is a perfect reflection of our world at this very moment.
Review by oppie ★★★½ 1

this movie been around since 2006 and some humans still litter smh hope y'all get eaten by giant catfish monster

Recent reviews

Review by Hannah Maka ★★★★½

Really fun monster movie with just the appropriate touch of humor and heart at inappropriate points. The monster doesn’t look very good, but the movie is shot very well.
Review by kauane ★★★★½

esse filme é simplesmente AULAS pra qualquer filme americano de bosta que é sobre perseguir algum monstro ou qualquer coisa parecida e eu confio minha vida nas mãos do homem q fez um filme desse tipo ficar bom
Nam il jogando coquetéis motolov no mostro enquanto toca um pianinho de fundo é cinema poético
esse monstrão>>>>>>>>>>demogorgon q inclusive eh cópia eu juro
Review by klucas7 ★★★

I liked it, I liked some of the ideas it threw out, but I didn't love it.
Review by Nick ★★★½

The Host succeeds best as pure entertainment, with a fun and fast-moving storyline that never really becomes stale. There are too many characters and it meanders too much, but, even when it isn't going anywhere, it's keeping things fresh, and I appreciated that. The problem is that it never amounts to much, and the social commentary is fairly shallow. There's some stuff about pollution in the opening scene, but the movie never really develops its satirical edge to be the perfect blend of entertainment and commentary that Parasite is. Instead, the "messaging" feels forced, and it feels more like an excuse for Bong Joon-ho to make a monster movie than it feels like he genuinely had something to say about the environment. But, as a monster movie, it's pretty damn entertaining, and actually makes you care about the characters, which is rare in movies like this. I'm definitely excited to check out more of Bong's work.
Review by Lili Todd ★★★★

In Hollywood, things go wrong for the Americans. Everywhere else, things go wrong because of the Americans
Review by rwy ★★½

van gölü canavarı could do better... 2,5 puanı da bong joon ho'nun batı nefretini sevdiğimden verdim <3
Review by petra ★★★★½

Despite it being a bit of a mess, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is immersive, interesting and entertaining, as well as exciting and emotional all the same.
Review by Asa Asa Asa ★★★★½

If I'd seen this in 2006 the bad cgi wouldn't have bothered me at all.
Review by MathBurgo ★★½

Okay okay, the monster is not the point, still I think the movie lacks purpose, and in my opinion there are too many pointless scenes. It takes too long to move the plot forward.
Review by omevapatel ★★★★

Sad I couldn’t see any Kaiju balls 😔
Review by ☆ Sophie ☆ ★★★½ 3

Bong Joon-Ho Ranked 👍🏼
The Host is as deceptive and intriguing as its title. The movie can be taken as a straightforward monster flick, a dark comedy, a sentimental drama, or a rich socio-political metaphor. The plot is two-dimensional, but the symbolic implications are powerful. The story is about a monster that terrorizes the banks of the Han River and grabs a young girl, prompting her incompetent family to lead a rescue effort, with no help from the Korean authorities. Some say that the monster represents Western imperialism. It could represent a symbolic "attack" on Korean culture, independence, and power. Or it could even be taken literally to describe environmental terrors caused by American's lack of care.
Like all good…
Review by vy ★★★

movies on the plane are kinda scarey