Robert Horton is a Scarecrow board member and a longtime film critic. This series of "critic's notes" is chance to highlight worthy films playing locally and connect them to the riches of Scarecrow's collection.
Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17 is out now, to mixed reviews, which had me looking back to previous offerings from the South Korean filmmaker. So here are a couple of reviews, published in The Herald in 2007 and 2010, respectively, of The Host and Mother. Historical footnote: I mention that the actor who plays the son in Mother is kind of a "Robert Pattinson-style heartthrob" in Korea; Pattinson is of course the star of Mickey 17. Some directors have a type, perhaps.
The Host
Connoisseurs of great monster rampages need to get themselves to The Host—and show up on time. This smart South Korean film has one of the great monster-amuck scenes ever made, and it comes early.
We are in Seoul, along the banks of the Han River. Gang-du is a layabout who works at a sidewalk food stand with his father and young daughter. Their ordinary urban afternoon is interrupted by the sight of something large and slimy unfurling itself from beneath a bridge.
What a splendid entrance—and this is only the first of the film's visual coups. Things are about to get really cool, as the creature—big, angry, somewhere between a giant lizard and a toothy fish—comes onto the shore and chases the locals.
This is where director Bong Joon Ho shows off his skills. For instance, a shot looking down at the monster from a speeding elevated train is one of those great moments just waiting to happen in the monster-movie world.
But Bong has more on his mind than action. What makes The Host a memorable movie is its sneaky humor and its interest in tying together the appearance of the monster with a larger political commentary—especially the way a government, when threatened, might spread disinformation and restrict citizens' rights.
Bong might also be tweaking the relationship between South Korea and the U.S.; he's said that some of the references are meant for Koreans to ponder. After all (in a scene based on an actual incident), it's an American military man, played by Scott Wilson, who orders chemicals dumped directly into the river. Couple years later, you've got a man-eating monster. Coincidence? I think not.
The Host has zany family dynamics, as hapless Gang-du unexpectedly bonds with his father, brother, and sister. The latter is a champion archer, which you can bet will come into play during the monster's attack.
The film's humor is so odd you might wonder whether the reels got mixed up with another movie at some point. Yet the monster itself is played straight—and rendered with mostly terrific special effects.
Gang-du is played by Song Kang-ho, a popular Korean actor (he was in Bong's Memories of Murder and Park Chan-wook's wild Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). With his slack expression and orange hair, Song allows himself to look like a real doofus here.
The Host stretches out to a full two hours, and it would work better at 90 minutes. There are some extremely slow patches in the middle going. But if you're into this kind of thing at all, stick with it—the ending's a killer.
Mother
Maternal love, or at least maternal energy, has rarely been as pointed as it is in Mother, a bizarre new offering from the South Korean director Bong Joon-ho. The movie's a study in parental willpower.
The mother here does not seem to have a name; she's just Mother, like Anthony Perkins' mom in Psycho. Mother (played by Kim Hye-ja) must constantly watch out for her grown son (Won Bin), who is not quite right in the head. (The casting apparently has more impact in Korea: Kim is known for her beloved maternal roles on Korean television, while Won is something of a Robert Pattinson-style heartthrob in Asia.) She runs an extra-legal business in medicinal herbs and acupuncture—none of which can help her son, who keeps getting in trouble because of his simple-mindedness.
At the center of the film is an incident in which a local girl is murdered, her body left hanging over the roof of a small building. The idiot son was seen talking to her shortly before her death, and his inability to answer basic questions about the incident makes him the perfect suspect for the crime.
Which is where Mother goes into gear. The protective instincts are fully engaged, and the film almost threatens to become a detective story, with Mother barreling around town trying to find out information.
The movie is pitched somewhere between David Lynch-like depths of perversity (this is a strange little town) and out-and-out comedy. Which I guess could describe a David Lynch movie, too.
Director Bong Joon Ho's previous film was the international monster-movie hit The Host, a decidedly original take on the subject of giant things that slither from rivers. Like that movie, Mother has a tendency to meander, browsing outside its plot and losing its forward motion at times.
If you're taken by the film's ferociously twisted main character, this might not matter too much. Bong is illustrating an exaggerated version of motherly devotion, and Kim Hye-ja's Mother is so wildly determined in her quest that you'll probably have to sign on just to see what she's capable of doing next.
March 21, 2025
