The Host

Plot: A US scientist stationed at a South Korean army base instructs his Korean subordinate to dump chemicals down the drain, from where they will float out into Han river. Years later, a mutated monster out of the river kidnaps a girl, whose family comes together to disobey the government and find her.

Hot take: I might be completely wrong here, but here's what I think. The main plot of the movie is completely irrelevant. What is brilliant about it is everything that happens around it. Dr. Bong is making some strong statements about America and its involvement in foreign policies. He took pieces of history (US tactics in Vietnam, Iraq and Korea) and placed them around the shitty plot for people to drink up. So you get your action-horror-monster plot to follow and gasp for, but in the background you see the oppression and struggle of people living through consequences of the men on top. If the people in charge were more focused on figuring out the issue at hand and supporting its victims, most of the problems which the heroes have to face would never surface. He manages to take real things that US has done, colourise them to fit a fantastical plot then taken a single family who is exposed to consequences of all those actions. I personally empathised with them (I watched it with someone who didn't at all) and so had a glimpse of what it feels like to be hopelessly flailed around by the government. To ease off Americans for a sec, the movie also feels a bit like a shout-out to Korea for being a puppet-state for the US so it's not just the baddies that are meant to feel bad.

Good directing, the shots were wonderful and very suspenseful. Bong's movies retain a plastic, fairytale-like quality to them which I don't know whether I like or not. In this case, I think I would argue against it. Let's be real, they're his movies are a bit kitsch.

Scenes to remember: people throwing trash and food at the first sighting; the girl being swooshed away by the tail; the opening scene; the family having a group breakdown as cameras gather around them; protesters lying down and girl filming the scene.

PS kek big COVID vibes throughout all of the movie. Shoutout to BONG for predicting everything 14 years earlier.