Let me first say that I love Godzilla and I love monster movies. The Host is a South Korean film that has received much critical acclaim for the return of the giant monster. With many comparisons to both the Godzilla movies and Jaws, to say that I was looking forward to watching this would be an understatement. Yet, when all was said and done, I was left, like the monster, a little cold. Maybe I had just bought into the hype a little too much.

The Host, with its success in Korea, and limited success in the US, has set the bar much higher for Korean cinema in terms of ticket sales and dollars earned. Korean cinema has become more popular over the past several years and will likely continue to move in that direction if The Host is any indication.

Synopsis:

Part TV family sitcom, part giant creature horror-fest, The Host tells the story of a wacky dysfunctional Korean family and their fight to survive and stick together during a giant monster attack. What begins with silly family antics straight out of The Simpsons, quickly turns to real tragedy and loss. The cast of characters is thin and built on one-note. There is the doting grandfather, the imbecilic father, the drunken brother, the semi-successful sister, and the overly-intelligent/obnoxious daughter. It is the daughter’s kidnapping by the monster that pulls the family together despite all odds to try to save her. The creature itself looks like a CGI Sid and Marty Kroft character gone wrong, but it looks decent enough considering the likely low budget. There were some genuine thrills and some downright funny moments, but as I mentioned, I was hoping for more.

Unfortunately, throughout the struggles, little redemption is found for the characters, and some don’t even make it through the day. I guess that’s my beef with this movie. Is it horror, or is it comedy? I think what often makes a good horror movie is a good dose of dark comedy, but The Host just can’t balance it. I found it jumping from one extreme to the other, disregarding the characters let alone the audience. But maybe I’m being a bit harsh. It wasn’t a bad movie per-se, and has garnered some great reviews, but it wasn’t enough for this monster movie fan.

Video:

The Host arrives on BD via a 1080p/VC-1 encode. Like the film, I had somewhat mixed feelings about the transfer. While there were a few knockout shots (see the close-up of a girl at the beach near the beginning of the movie), I just didn’t feel the transfer was consistent. While much of the film is covered with a light grain (likely intentional), it seemed this verged into a heavier grain/possibly noise (likely unintentional) in spots. The overall result was an adequate presentation that, also like the movie, didn’t thrill me.

Audio:

Maybe I’ve been bashing a bit so far, but I won’t in the audio department. The PCM 5.1 track is a killer (pun intended). Prepare to be immersed in the sound-scape. This is demo material here, and anyone who questions the validity of a lossless track vs. Dolby Digital can compare the two here and find the PCM track significantly stronger. It really packs a wallop. This is how all track should sound in horror films, crisp, clean, and powerful at just the right times. As far as the dub, yes, you can watch it in English, but no, you shouldn’t.

Special Features:

Here’s a bone to pick. Why are high-def discs often left with less special features than their SD counterparts? I’m all about using the extra space on the disc for superior audio and video, but why not, like the SD version, include a second disc of extras? Anyhoo..Here’s what we get:

• The Making of the Host
• The Creature
• The Cast
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Commentary with director Bong Joon-Ho
• Korean Trailer

All features are presented in SD (why not include the rest of the SD features?) and are pretty self-explanatory. Worth watching are the Making of the Host and the commentary is worth the time for fans.

Final Thoughts:

Despite my review, I didn’t hate The Host, I just didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would. That’s not to say it isn’t worth a rent, but I’d advise doing so before blindly buying (as I did). Audiophiles and fans will be more than pleased. I’ll be heading back to my newly released/remastered Gojira, thank you very much!

I am a huge fan of foreign cinema. It gives me a chance to enjoy unique and unconventional films without the predictability and overly optimistic Hollywood undertones. So it goes without saying that anytime I get the opportunity to observe foreign film I welcome it with open arms. Already being a huge fan of Chinese cinema I hope Curse of the Golden Flower can hold up to what I’ve come to expect from past viewings

Curse of the Golden Flower is a fictitious story told in 10th century China where the ambitious Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-Fat, Hard Boiled) has abandoned his first wife to obtain the hand of a Princess later referred to as Empress Phoenix. That’s about as simple as it gets, because things start to get really confusing, encouraging a second viewing. Nevertheless, Ping has no affection for his new wife and gives her n medicine every few hours to keep her in check. But while the story develops we discover the Empress is sleeping with Ping’s son, and learns that she is being poisoned by her husband and the Imperial Doctor. This leads to her leading a rebellion which tears the family apart and tests the loyalty of the Emperor’s two sons as well as others close to him. If you get past the first while which can be extremely over indulging, the story develops into something rather interesting tied in with some nice action scenes.

Normally I’m all for complex characters and expansive storylines, but something seemed to be missing in Curse of the Golden Flower that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Ultimately I felt that the movie was just too slow, focusing too much on unessential aspects of the Ancient Chinese lifestyle, and less on building up the conflicts. But my problems with the films execution didn’t overshadow the brilliance of the filmmakers, Curse of the Golden Flower had amazing character development and some tantalizing martial arts sequences. You can really tell this film wasn’t the workings of Hollywood; things had a way of feeling real, and even Shakespearean. On a completely separate note I have to applaud Chow Yun-Fat for another superb performance, completely selling his role and adding to the depth of the character and movie. But while I didn’t find the film overly interesting, I can still really appreciate the amazing execution of the character development and in-depth storytelling, Cure of the Golden Flower is a true testament to the ever evolving Chinese cinema.

Video

Presented in a 1080p 2.35:1 aspect ratio and encoded in MPEG4, Curse of the Golden Flower nearly has the look of perfection, the interior shots early on in the film look amazing. Almost every color you can think of is shown here and they all look extremely vibrant and crisp. The costume design looks terrific in high definition, sporting both excellent detail and color.

But as good as this transfer looked, there is as always a few negative points worth mentioning. The first thing that comes to mind is the extreme softness in several scenes; more specifically within the poor lighting conditions. And despite the colors looking amazing, the blacks frequently had a tendency of looking washed out. Problems aside this is one of the most colorful looking films I have seen in high definition, not only does it render these colors perfectly, it combines them with exceptional detail to create an almost perfect transfer.

Audio

Sony has included a pair of tracks for this release, a PCM 5.1 Chinese track which sounds the best, or a less highly recommended Dolby Digital 5.1 English dub version. For me the highlight of the track lies within the action sequences scattered throughout the film, be it one on one sword fights or massive battles everything sounds so much better in PCM. For instance whenever arrows were shot they had a tremendous field of depth, traveling from front to rear channels seamlessly with impressive results. In addition to the frequent use of all channels, the dialogue from the front channels sounded crisp and meshed extremely well with a great sounding soundtrack. Once again Sony has provided a pair of excellent sounding audio tracks; this is the best the film will likely sound for a long time to come, easily pleasing fans.

Special Features

A very disappointing lack of features, but at least the Secrets Within featurette is worth some attention, making up for the otherwise lackluster special features.

• Secrets Within: Making of Featurette – A 23 minute look into all aspects Cure of the Golden Flower. Includes interviews with the filmmakers and cast regarding pre production, filming, costume design, etc a pretty interesting look behind the scenes, sure to please fans of the film.
• Los Angeles Premiere – 2 minutes of footage from the Los Angeles premiere of the film, includes a red carpet interview with director Zhang Yimou.

Final Thoughts

The film itself was a bit slow but I appreciated its complexities, just don’t expect to walk into a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon type martial arts film. Instead get ready to use your mind a bit and enjoy a brilliant sounding audio track combined with an equally impressive video transfer. If it weren’t for the dismal special features section this disc would be a must buy for fans, but even so I’d recommend the purchase for fans. Otherwise rent this one first, because it’s not for everyone.

Special Features List

• Secrets Within: Making of Featurette
• Los Angeles Premiere