Gang-du (SONG Kang-hu) works at a food market on the banks of the Han River in Seoul, South Korea. While nodding off on the job, he is awakened by his daughter, Hyun-seo (KO A-sung), who is mad with him for missing the PTA meeting at her school. As Gang-du walks out to the riverbank with a delivery, he notices that a large crowd of people from the beach area are taking pictures of something hanging from the Han River Bridge. This beach area is usually the laid back place to hang out turns suddenly to mayhem, when a terrifying Loch Ness looking creature climbs up onto the riverbank and begins to crush, snatch, and eat people. Gang-du and his daughter run for their lives, but suddenly the creature grabs Hyun-seo and disappears back into the river. The South Korean government announces that the monstous thing is the Host of an unidentified virus.

It all started years earlier from the opening scenes of the movie, when a scientist instructs his assistant to toss out chemical waste materials down the drain, which will eventually settle in the Han River.

As the Seoul city police, South Korean government scientist, and the U.S. military are detaining its residents who could be contaminated. The government and military decide to use its secret weapon - Agent Yellow gas - to kill the creature. Having feared the worst that his daughter is dead, Gang-hu receives a phone (cell) call from his daughter who is scared, but alive. It seems that she has managed to escape from the monster and hide in the Han Bridge tunnels where she meets a little boy who has become a victim. Gang-du soon makes his plans with his brother, his father, and his sister to infiltrate the forbidden zone near the Han River to rescue his daughter from the horrifying Host. Well, I'm not going to be a spoiler on this review, but I can tell you everything does not end up completely happy.

The director/writer BONG Joon-ho's film suggest that its context is schizophrentic, because the scenes are very dramatic and entertaining with a twist of comedy, but an audience will respond more to the eerie moods it projects. The talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival was that he utilizes state-of-art special effects to tell his story that is equally proportioned as a creature feature thriller, comedy, and a poignant human drama. In my opinion this one of the best monster flix made lately. Spielberg move over.

Directed by: BONG Joon-ho
Run time: 119 mins.
Release date: March 9, 2007 (U.S. Limited)
Genres: Action/Adventure, Art/Foreign, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Susense/Horror and
Thriller.
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Format: Subtitled
Country of Origin; South Korea/Japan