Any person who prides themselves on their love of monster films is doing a disservice to their life if they don't watch The Host. Monster movies never do it for me in the scare department, but I love the concept of giant unstoppable creatures rampaging through a city a la Godzilla, The Giant Gila Monster, or most recently Cloverfield, which revived the genre for the main stream US audience. Because it's Korean, The Host unfortunately didn't get too much play around the American market, but I assure you that if you take the time to find it, it'll be well worth the effort.

Gang-du is a simple man. He works at his father's food cart on Seoul's Han River, serving fried squid and sleeping on the job. His only love is his daughter Hyun-seo, for whom he wants nothing more than to be a good father. On a seemingly normal day on the rivers edge, people gather to see a strange thing hanging beneath a bridge only for it to swim over and start terrorizing everyone in its path. Gang-du does everything he can to save his daughter but his efforts are for nothing as the beast eventually wraps his tail around Hyun-seo and bounds back into the river, disappearing into the nearby sewers. 

Presuming his daughter is dead, Gang-du and his family mourn her loss in a government controlled containment unit set up to prevent a weird virus from spreading to the people who were able to escape contact with the beast. Alas, Gang-du receives a midnight phone call from none other than a living Hyun-seo trapped somewhere near the river in a non-descript sewer, so with nothing but that information, the family of four escapes custody and begins their search for their lost loved one at great risk of being swallowed by the monster.

I think the best way to quantify just how good this film is is by quoting something Kristin said to me about 10 minutes into it, "Take this how you will, but Asians have a real gift for film making." The Host is brilliantly shot. The action is filmed great, but it never feels like director Joon-ho Bong is begging us to look at his monster. Insert as many sexual innuendos there as you'd like. It's shot in such a way that the focus is always on the family and their struggle to find their MacGuffin. All of it has that trademark Korean look to it, making you feel like instead of watching a horror movie, you're watching something much more beautiful.

Much like District 9, The Host makes no attempt to hide it's monster in any sort of shadow or darkness. The first time we see it is in the middle of a bright and sunny day, running through wide open spaces, smiling big at the camera the whole time. The difference being that you can actually tell a little that it's CG. It looks great, but you're not going to be fooled into thinking that its actually there like you would be by District 9. 

The story plays out really well and even though most of the government story line is in the background, you still get a really solid idea about what exactly is going on. Nothing gets convoluted behind the language barrier making this a real easy movie to watch for people who like to say, "I'm a douche, I don't like to read movies. How would I know what's going on?" Jerks. 

The Host quickly became one of my all time favorite monster movies. It's fast paced but emotional, scary yet goofy, and just an all around great time. Netflix users can check it out in the Watch Instantly section.