"Run away! Run away!"
From my review of "The Host" on RogerEbert.com:
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. It's the recombinant offspring of all those science-fiction pictures of the 1950s and '60s in which exposure to atomic radiation (often referred to as both "atomic" and "radiation") or hazardous chemicals (sometimes also radioactive) results in something very large and inhospitable: "Them!" (giant ants), "Tarantula" (giant spider), "Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People" (giant fungi), "The Amazing Colossal Man" (giant bald guy), "The Giant Behemoth" (giant behemoth -- both giant and a behemoth, but more precisely a radioactive ocean-dwelling Godzilla clone), "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (giant Frankenstein's monster atomically regenerated from the beating heart of the original monster after the A-bomb is dropped on Hiroshima), and so on.Continued at RogerEbert.com...In "The Host" (a k a "Gwoemul"), the mutagen is a simple aldehyde, HCHO (possibly even a radioactive variety). The movie opens in the year 2000 at the Yongsan U.S. Army base in Seoul, where an American mortician (the always superb Scott Wilson, clearly having fun) orders a Korean subordinate to dump dusty bottles of "dirty formaldehyde" into the sink ... which empties into the Han River. When the underling objects, the American insists, "The Han River is very... broad, Mr. Kim. Let's try to be broad-minded about this." Had Al Gore been present, he would have made a persuasive counter-argument with colorful charts and graphs about the dangers of poisoning our fragile planet, but an order is an order, so down the drain the noxious stuff goes.
(This scene is based on a notorious incident involving Albert McFarland, an American civilian mortician at the Yongsan military base, who in 2000 ordered his staff to pour 120 liters of formaldehyde into the morgue's plumbing. Although the chemicals passed through two treatment plants before reaching the Han, source of Seoul's drinking water, the scandal sparked an anti-American uproar in South Korea.)
At the movie's center is the Park family, a clan no less eccentric than the Hoovers of "Little Miss Sunshine." (Think "Little Miss Sashimi.")...
The creature -- just like (spoiler warning) the Moroccan kids who accidentally shoot the American employer of the Mexican nanny with the rifle formerly belonging to the Japanese businessman with the deaf daughter who is sexually provocative in "Babel" (end of spoiler warning) -- unknowingly precipitates an international incident. And in the ensuing pandemonium, the Parks are forced to fend for themselves....
"Little Miss Sashimi!" Saying that out loud had me giggling for a long time.
Ever since seeing the trailer for this film, I've been dying to see it. Looks like a hoot.
Shame on you, Jim. Sashimi is Japanese; the family in this film is Korean. Asians are already horribly stereotyped and misrepresented as one amorphous culture in U.S. media -- why would a smart guy like you add to the misinformation?
JE: I thought somebody would make this assertion, but I wondered why so many Korean restaurants serve sashimi. Turns out it is a Korean dish as well, and significantly different from the Japanese style. From globalgourmet.com:
"Koreans also indulge in sashimi, although these raw fish pieces are cut more coarsely and larger than their Japanese counterparts. As with other foods, Korean sashimi is typically eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves."
Google "Korean sashimi" and you'll find out a lot more -- "about 337,000 results"!
Boy, you're going to think I'm just trying to give you a hard time, but "sashimi" is still a Japanese word. There are a variety of foods similar to what Americans generically call "sushi" (another Japanese term), but no term in the Korean language called "sashimi," even if we Americans (and some Korean restaurants catering to us) misapply it that way.
Anyway, I know you strive for accuracy, and I dig your reviews, so I offer this only in that spirit!
JE: I understand, Steve -- but, honest, sashimi is not exclusively Japanese. Koreans may use a Japanese word for it, but their version is a different dish. It's not just an Americanized thing. You'll find numerous traditional Korean restaurants in Korea that serve it, too -- as Korean as kimchi! Japan and Korea share a lot of culinary history (not surprising, because they are so close).
Check out this restaurant in Seoul, for example:
Tammory www.tammory.co.kr tel 02 5520664
Specialized in Korean sashimi, which is very different from the Japanese one. The fish comes daily from the Jeju Island. Tables are traditional and the menu is written in perfect Korean language!
A Japanese take on Korean sashimi (with photo):
Usually I think of Korean food, "Yakiniku" comes at first, next "Kimuchi", and etc, etc...But this time "Sashimi." And in Japan, we eat sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi.
Anyway, Last night, my colleagues(2 Korean and 2 Japanese) and I went to a Korean restaurant in Shin-Ookubo, Korean Town in Japan.
To my surprise, this sashimi served with lettuce, sliced garlic, sliced green-chili, and spicy paste, i suppose it was gochujang or something like that. You take a lettuce leaf and place fish and gochujang, garlic and chili as you like, roll them up and eat.
I'm looking forward to seeing this (I have to wait, CT is bad with limited releases I guess).
Korean movies seem to be taking the lead in terms of cinematic originality. I loved the vengeance series, 3-Iron, and I'm looking forward to Time (Kim Ki Duk).
Very excited to finally see the Host this week. It's funny you mentioned Little Miss Sunshine; while watching Bong's Barking Dogs Never Bite earlier this week that film came to mind to me; I think both Bong and the Little Miss Sunshine have hit on some kind of connection between characters who are hyperbolic "losers" and physical comedy.
My comment reads funny because there's a missing word. Filmmakers. As in, "I think both Bong and the Little Miss Sunshine filmmakers have hit on some kind of connection..."
I just noticed you're not the only critic to bring up Little Miss Sunshine in his review of the Host. Critics from Christy Lemire to David Edelstein have joined in with the comparion. Fascinating.
Jim, You're the third review I've read of this film that compared the family to that of Little Miss Sunshine...was that maybe mentioned in the press kit? That aside, I hope this film flys into the big flyover soon. It's been on my list since I heard of it at Cannes last year!
JE: I never saw a press kit for "The Host" -- but I noticed those comparisons, too. (Coincidentally, Manohla Dargis and I both mentioned "LMS" and "Inconvenient Truth" -- though I just alluded to the latter without mentioning it by name.) I'm not surprised at the comparisons, though. The mostly comical treatment of the extended family, with the little girl at the center, IS pretty similar, after all!
I can't wait to see this... but I looked at the theater listings and Knoxville, TN isn't listed. Suprising, as our Regal Cinemas arthouse (hell, Regal Cinemas is now based in Knoxville) gets the films faster and more often than most other states in the South East area. What's up?