What do you get when you cross dangerous chemicals with the Han River? The ugliest, angriest, slimiest damn mutant monster you've ever seen, that's what! And what do you get when you cross Korean humour with action-adventure and a touch of family drama? "The Host"!

The Host ("Gwoemul" in Korean) has everything you want in a monster movie - a monster worth running away from, interesting characters for the monster to chase, and some laughs for good measure. I was surprised at how much I liked this movie. I had heard it was the biggest commercial movie to come out of South Korea, but seeing as I had not watched any other South Korean movies, I had no idea what that actually entailed. Now I do - it was a funny action-adventure sci-fi family-drama monster-movie. All it needs now is a bit of romance and it covers every genre there is!

The first half introduces us to the Korean family whose fates are intertwined with that of the creature's - A father trying to make a living with his food stand on the edge of the Han River, the creature's birthplace; his oldest son, a clumsy man with a habit of falling asleep at inopportune times; another son who went to college only to become a drunken failure; and a daughter who excels at archery but has never made it to the top due to her hesitant nature. Though this family screams "dysfunctional!", they band together when their youngest is taken by the mutant creature, and must use their collective skills to avenge her.

Usually with foreign films, comic timing is wasted as there is often a split second delay between a line being delivered and reading the subtitle. Not so with The Host. The humour is mostly slapstick, and certainly delivers the laughs. A fight during a funeral involving the whole family is easily one of my favourite parts of the whole movie. 

It is hard to ignore the political overtones inherent in The Host - the film opens with an American man ordering a Korean assistant to tip dangerous chemicals down the sink, and it is these chemicals that eventually spawn the creature in the depths of the Han River. Later, however, it is discovered the creature is spreading a virus, and American intervention is required to contain the virus, and hopefully eradicate it. Bird flu anyone?

By the second half of The Host, the atmosphere changes. Events cause the family to be split apart, and now things get more desperate. They each must overcome their hurdles to get to their loved one in time. Throw in some molotov cocktails, a bow and arrow and a large pole, and you've got quite a satisfying fight on your hands. Though the ending may not turn out exactly the way you expect, it certainly delivers on it's message - no matter the differences between you, the love for a family member can rise above anything, even a gruesomely mutated creature with the longest, grossest tongue you will ever see.

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