The Host

The Host is a 2006 South Korean epic monster film directed and co-written by Bong Joon-ho. Starring Song Kang-ho, Byun Hee-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Doona and Go Ah-sung, it tells the story of a monster that kidnaps a man's daughter, and his attempts to rescue her. In 2000, Bong began conceptualizing a new monster movie inspired by a widely-reported scandal, in which an American commanded his Korean employees to dispose of formaldehyde down a drain, which ended up in the Han River. He proposed the film roughly two years later and started writing the script with Ha Joon-won in 2003; Baek Chul-hyun joined the pair to revise scripting for the film in December 2004. The film was shot on a budget of, with most sequences filmed on location near the Han River. New Zealand company Wētā Workshop modeled the film's creature and the American studio The Orphanage handled its visual effects. The Host premiered on a record number of screens in its home country on July 27, 2006, and became the highest-grossing South Korean film in history upon its release. The film obtained critical acclaim, grossed US$90 million worldwide, and won several awards, including Best Film at the Asian Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Thus, a sequel and American remake put forward, but neither ultimately ever came to fruition. Plot In 2000, an American military pathologist orders his Korean assistant to dump 200 bottles of formaldehyde down a drain leading into the Han River. Over the next several years, there are sightings of a strange amphibious creature in the waterway, and the fish in the river die off.