Bong Joon Ho is my favorite modern filmmaker, and I’m not shy about admitting it. If you were to reduce my moviegoing sensibilities to their purest form, I think you’d find nothing but the essence of both Bong Joon Ho and Wes Craven there (with a dash of early 2000s horror fare for good measure). My horror education was largely predicated on J-horror and K-horror movies, so since I first really got into the genre, I’ve always had an affinity for that subgenre and, more broadly, international horror movies. I’m privileged every year to curate Dread Central’s year-end list for international horror movies, after all. It seems that Quentin Tarantino feels the same way.
With Bong Joon Ho in particular, I’ve always been partial to the absurdity of his style, the remarkable ease with which he weaves a tapestry of competing tones and themes that somehow, in the end, all come together. Think of Best Picture winner Parasite and its brief yet critical “there’s a ghost in this house” thread, or Memories of Murder’s striking final shot. Even his most recent release, the English-language Mickey 17, is as funny as it is heartbreaking, yet it wholly defies easy categorization. The same applies to one of his earlier features, one of the greatest monster movies ever made and a personal favorite of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Now, the film is streaming on Max.
Per Max: A monster emerges from Seoul’s Han River and begins attacking people. One victim’s loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches.
In 2009, Quentin Tarantino was asked to list his 20 favorite movies released since his directorial debut in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs. Bong Joon Ho features not once, but twice on the list. Of course, the greatest serial killer movie ever made, Memories of Murder, made the cut, but so too did The Host, which Tarantino remarked was a monster movie only Bong Joon Ho could make, saying: “Only director Joon-ho Bong could make a monster movie so creepy and lovable as Host.’ And that, honestly, is the hallmark of a classic. A movie so singular, it’s impossible to imagine it from anyone else.
In 2013, Quentin Tarantino shared more with The Hollywood Reporter, saying Bong Joon Ho is “like Spielberg in his prime,” and adding how he was “blown away” by the film. The Host is a bonafide classic. While it hits all the expectedly terrifying monster movie beats, there’s an unwieldy emotional core whose vacillations render the film’s final gut-punch all the more effective. At every possible turn, Bong Joon Ho manages the impossible, both subverting and meeting audience expectations. It’s as classic a monster movie as there is, a movie crammed with years of cinematic history and its director’s bold, uncompromising vision.
Now, The Host is streaming on HBO’s Max, so you can check it out for yourself. I promise you won’t be disappointed. When you do catch it, let me know what you think over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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