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lsandersonDear Film Club Members:
I grew up near the banks of the Han River in Seoul. As a student, while daydreaming, I’d imagine what would happen if a fearsome creature made a sudden appearance from the depths of this river, so familiar and comfortable for us Seoulites. The riverbanks would be instantly plunged into chaos. I thought that this scene might one day make the basis for a great film. My film THE HOST begins at the precise moment in which a space familiar and intimate to us is suddenly transformed into the stage of an unthinkable disaster and tragedy.
THE HOST is a monster movie in the classic tradition of such films. But what is often overlooked when discussing this genre is how important it is to balance the appearance of a monster with lovable, empathetic characters. For this, I devised a very “typically” Korean family who are by turns funny, inept, and heroic—like anyone’s family. Park Gang-du and his family have led ordinary, repetitive lives, never really extending beyond the confines of their small food stand on the banks of the Han River. They are devastated by the emergence of the Creature. Robbed of their peaceful daily routines, Gang-du and his family do the only thing they can: throw themselves into a life-and-death struggle against the Creature to rescue their lost daughter. The film shows how these exceedingly normal people, no different from our everyday neighbors, are transformed into monster-fighting warriors.
But as with all great monster films, the Creature is not the only adversary they have to fight. Have you ever felt powerless in the face of an immovable impasse? For Gang-du and his family, impoverished, powerless “little people,” the whole world around them is revealed to be a true monster. They have to fight against it tooth and nail. The film is, in the end, a record of their moving fight to the death against the indifferent, calculating and manipulative Monster known as the world. In that way, THE HOST is also a peek into contemporary Korea.
For a long time, I kept my desire to make my monster movie a secret. And even after revealing the idea, many told me that I shouldn’t make this film. But I felt that, just because monster movies haven’t been consistently great in a long time, that this wasn’t a reason to keep from making THE HOST. I hope you’ll go see it, and that you’ll think it was worthwhile as well.
Sincerely,
Bong Joon-ho
I grew up near the banks of the Han River in Seoul. As a student, while daydreaming, I’d imagine what would happen if a fearsome creature made a sudden appearance from the depths of this river, so familiar and comfortable for us Seoulites. The riverbanks would be instantly plunged into chaos. I thought that this scene might one day make the basis for a great film. My film THE HOST begins at the precise moment in which a space familiar and intimate to us is suddenly transformed into the stage of an unthinkable disaster and tragedy.
THE HOST is a monster movie in the classic tradition of such films. But what is often overlooked when discussing this genre is how important it is to balance the appearance of a monster with lovable, empathetic characters. For this, I devised a very “typically” Korean family who are by turns funny, inept, and heroic—like anyone’s family. Park Gang-du and his family have led ordinary, repetitive lives, never really extending beyond the confines of their small food stand on the banks of the Han River. They are devastated by the emergence of the Creature. Robbed of their peaceful daily routines, Gang-du and his family do the only thing they can: throw themselves into a life-and-death struggle against the Creature to rescue their lost daughter. The film shows how these exceedingly normal people, no different from our everyday neighbors, are transformed into monster-fighting warriors.
But as with all great monster films, the Creature is not the only adversary they have to fight. Have you ever felt powerless in the face of an immovable impasse? For Gang-du and his family, impoverished, powerless “little people,” the whole world around them is revealed to be a true monster. They have to fight against it tooth and nail. The film is, in the end, a record of their moving fight to the death against the indifferent, calculating and manipulative Monster known as the world. In that way, THE HOST is also a peek into contemporary Korea.
For a long time, I kept my desire to make my monster movie a secret. And even after revealing the idea, many told me that I shouldn’t make this film. But I felt that, just because monster movies haven’t been consistently great in a long time, that this wasn’t a reason to keep from making THE HOST. I hope you’ll go see it, and that you’ll think it was worthwhile as well.
Sincerely,
Bong Joon-ho
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Date: 2007-03-24 01:00 am (UTC)