Cinematic Element ‘Genre’
Abstract
A touching play, a political satire, and a dysfunctional comedy, The Host created by Bong Joon-ho is also a monster movie. Viewed as the most successful film commercially in South Korean, the 2006 movie is categorized under the monster genre. Bong Joon-ho’s The Host is described as a recombinant progeny of all the other science-fiction films created in the early 1950s and 1960s since its introduction to atomic fallout, usually denoted as radiation and atomic or dangerous chemicals (or radioactive), resulting into a monstrous creature that is very huge in size and unfriendly (Emerson, 2007). Bong Joon-ho, the Korean director, the uproarious new movie that is about an enormous sea monster. The film is subtly and exquisitely created, or maybe even a little more subtly and beautifully. The admiration, acceptance, and the significance of Bong Joon-ho’s The Host originates from its excavating of the ambivalence regarding the rapid transformation of South Korea from old oppression to modern self-government with one of the exquisite economies in the world. There are several instances the film showed that it falls under the monster film genre. The creature that Bong Joon-ho and his team created is still a stunning model. The film classifies itself as a monster film since hostile creature arises or transpires due to circumstances that are beyond the control of humankind. This essay review also describes some instances where Bong Joon-ho’s The Host lacks to meet the genre specifications. Although this exciting movie does include entirely mimicked representations of a monster, the film imitated representations surpassed the necessities of genre storytelling. The film’s theme is a representation of a continued conspiracy about the virus and the sprays of toxic chemicals.
The Host 2006, created by Bong Joon-ho, is viewed as the most commercially successful movie blockbuster in South Korean cinema history. The film hit falls under the monster film genre. Bong Joon-ho’s The Host 2006 has been termed as the defining monster film of the 21st century. The movie’s significance and popularity stem from its excavating of the ambivalence regarding the rapid transformation of South Korea from a rural tyranny to an urban social equality with one of the best and sturdiest economies on earth. This uncertainty is repressed under a thin covering of “progress” that blankets present-day South Korea and establishes a condition known as “inverted exile” (Turner, 2012). The Host was released in 2006 as Bong Joon-ho’s third film. The monster movie came under South Korean cinema’s height thriving as it rapidly broke several domestic records and reaped a comparatively extensive international release. Like its director Bong Joon-ho, The Host is South Korea’s product of economic success and westernization.
The film has particular instances that meet its genre requirements of a monster film. A monster film, giant monster movie, or a creature feature is a movie that concentrates on a particular set of characters trying to endure continuous attacks from one very large or several hostile monsters. The special effects in the film, The Host, haven’t entirely aged well. The creature that Bong Joon-ho and his team created is still a stunning model. The Host categorizes itself as a monster and not a traditional antagonist since the antagonistic monster in the movie occurs due to situations beyond human control. The surviving characters’ actions are totally not based on their choices, thus making them sympathize with the audience. In the film, The Host, Bong Joon-ho and his team has created an overgrown sewer illusion whose mouth has several weird crinkles in which an audience cannot make sense of all of them at the end of the film (Ehrlich, 2017). The created monster in the movie is silly and scary in equal measure. At the same time, it is changeable and random to the very end. No one can predict the next place where the monster will be popping up or what will be the next event that will appear retching out of its stratified mouth. And instead, the most erratic thing about this digital wonder monster film is that the director really lets us look at the ugly creature.
But there are ways in which the film, The Host does not meet its genre as a monster film. By definition, a monster movie is an imaginary or illusion genre film and programs that concentrate on prodigious or supernatural powers, nonhuman or part human, or an animated being, which threatens people’s lives. The monster theme and story in the monster films are usually illusion or not real. Everything that is created in these films usually is not valid. The first character to appear in Bong Joon-ho’s The Host is based on McFarland, a real person from the United States (Chung, 2011). Even though The Host does feature completely caricatured representations, one can soundly argue that the film mimicked representations surpassed the necessities of genre storytelling. That comprises of the cross-eyed mad scientist man who interferes with the brain of the isolated Korean protagonist with an excuse of trying to find a virus spread by the mutant. Maybe most of the heavy-handed is the director’s addition of a threatening conspiracy scheme linking the military of the United States, which feasts false stories about the sprays toxic chemicals and the virus (mostly understood as “Agent Yellow”) so that they can protect their own blame (Chung, 2011).
References
Chung, H. S. (2011). Monster and Empire: Bong Joon-ho’s The Host (2006) and the Question of Anti-Americanism. Oakland Journal Number 20: Winter 2011.
Ehrlich, D. (2017). Bong Joon-ho’s ‘The Host’ Is The Defining Monster Movie Of The 21st Century. Retrieved 4 November 2020, from https://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/bong-joon-ho-the-host-best-monster-movie-21st-century-korea-song-kang-ho-bae-doona-trump-1201813051/
Emerson, J. (2007). The Host movie review & film summary (2007) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved 5 November 2020, from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-host-2007
Turner, J. L. (2012). Monstrous Dialogues: THE HOST and South Korean Inverted Exile.