Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) set South Korean box office records alight in 2006 with this genre-defying monster movie. Part creature feature, part social critique, The Host is a mutant fish-like beast that emerges out of Seoul’s Han River after toxic waste is illegally dumped by the U.S. military. Feared to host a deadly virus, the enormous monster attacks the city, and ends up taking a young girl captive. Her family, frustrated by the inaction of local authorities, proceed to stop at nothing to get her back. Inspired by a real-life news story, and Bong’s childhood obsession with the Loch Ness monster, The Host is a modern classic by this master filmmaker.
“A loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within” — The New York Times
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