Gwoemul (The Host)

Thirteen years before South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won the Cannes Film Festival with his later Oscar-winner Parasite, he caused a worldwide sensation for the first time with a completely different thriller: The Host is an intelligent beast of a
monster film, and at the same time a great national morality tale. After expired formaldehyde is dumped into the water at a US military base, a strange amphibian creature appears, spreading fear and terror in Seoul. As a food supply, it kidnaps a girl whose family - including a master archer with nervous problems - sets out to rescue her. As a microcosm of South Korean society, they cause further problems - as if the deployment of ‘Agent Yellow’ under pressure from the USA and WHO wasn't problematic enough ... Bong orchestrates his action allegory as a captivating mixture of the fantastic and the everyday: the sensational first monster attack is a carnival of horror, followed by an alternating bath of strong scenes of tension and turbulent tragicomedy. (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Österreichisches Filmmuseum