Introduction to Korea through film

Introduction to Korea through film

The Host is a story about a monster living in a river, the Han River in downtown Seoul that emerges from the river to attack an economically disabled family, the Park family. It snatches a girl, Hyun Seo, Gang-du’s young daughter, after which the Korean government offers to help the family by using the states resources (Choi, p.13). As a result of the little girl’s disappearance, the family and all others people who have had contact with the monster are quarantined to prevent its deadly virus from spreading. But their seclusion ends when the girl’s father receives a phone call from her daughter whom together with a homeless boy has been taken hostage by the monster. This causes the whole family to break out of the hospital and this becomes the beginning of a search, which is heroic and at the same time humorous, to recover the girl (Elsaesser, p.44).

The humor besides making the film interesting in a way captures several serious matters both political as well as social; from the way the government tries to get involved to about how the family gets affected.( Choi,p.60) The sudden appearance of creatures and the attack established on the poor marginalized citizens of the states, in a way portrays an oppressive behavior to which the less fortune and rural poor in the society are forced to go through as a result of not having the resources owned by those in power; or those above them economically or financially. Bong’s creativity is seen in the film’s close yet far relation to American films. He does not allow his cultural beliefs or ideas to interfere with his initial intention for the film; neither does he duplicate content from other American films making his creation completely unpredictable.

The monster is in itself of American descent. Apart from that fact, nothing else links it to the western culture. The characters being typical Koreans hold themselves so and try to portray their culture in the way they speak and their values that they hold within. The saving act of a group of people brought together by the events of the attack of the innocent victims becomes the base for social realities (Choi, p.56.) A genre film a method of categorizing a film based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed or the emotional response they evoke.

A huge animal rises up out of the Han River and starts assaulting individuals while Gang-du is conveying sustenance to a few clients (Elsaesser, p.30).Pack du sees his little girl was in group and tries to snatch her and run. As he understands he got on the wrong young lady, he sees the animal grabbing Hyun-seo and jumping once again into the stream. After a mass memorial service for the casualties, government agents and the American military arrive and isolate individuals who had contact with the animal, including Gang-du and his family. It is reported that the animal is an immediate threat, as well as the host of a fatal, obscure infection. Du is in a healing center when he gets a telephone call from Hyun-seo (Elsaesser, p.100). She is caught some place in the sewers with the animal. Posse du tries to disclose this to others; however his cases go disregarded by all with the exception of his family. The four escape the clinic. Hee-bong purchases a truck, weapons, and a guide of the sewers to search for Hyun-seo. They discover a lunch room, have a supper and rest. After awakening, they experience the animal. Before long, they find their weapon just serves to outrage it, and Hee-bong gets himself killed purchasing time for his youngsters to get away. Pack du is caught by the Army. Nam-il and Nam-joo escape yet are isolated from each other. (Choi, p.67).Two homeless young men, Se-jin and Se-joo, are hunting down nourishment when they are assaulted and gulped by the animal. It comes back to its dozing range in the sewer, an extensive gap, and spews them. Just Se-Joo is alive. Hyun-seo helps Se-Joo cover up in a spot the animal can’t reach.

Back in the sewers, while the animal is sleeping, Hyun-seo makes a rope from old garments and uses it to escape the gap. She understands past the point of no return that the animal just pretends rest to bait her out of her concealing spot (Ohba, p.67). Hyun-seo and Se-joo are gulped by the animal. The government reports the arrangement to discharge a substance called Agent Yellow into the stream and the encompassing region, trusting it will murder the animal. Pack du finds the animal’s dozing spot yet sees nobody there (Elsaesser, p.17). As Gang-du moves down to the opening, the beast ignores him. He sees Hyun-seo’s arm hanging out of its mouth and gives pursue, meeting Nam-joo in transit. The animal advances toward the area where Agent Yellow is discharged and a substantial group has shaped in challenge.

Monsters are believed to be unusual horrible imaginary scary creatures that terrorize the human race on earth. Monsters that scare us can be zombies, witches, and vampires that help us to cope with what we dread most in life. Fears of monsters have brought different races and ethnic groups from various parts together. Monsters are believed to be stronger than the human race. They cause depletion and a lot of harm to the people (Elsaesser, p.50).play high tasks in diversifying modern society. Monster has been depicted differently in the American society. In America scholars and democratic activists together have lamented the absence or obliteration of traditions of independent civic engagement and a widespread behavior toward passive reliance on the state. To those concerned with the weakness of civil societies in the Western and above all the US are models to be emulated (Elsaesser, p.50). There is striking evidence, however, that the boldness of American civil society has notably declined over the past several decades.

As depicted from the   movies that explain about “Twilight” culture, monsters like vampires can be used to explain about the modern American society. Monsters depict women as being powerless in the contemporary American society (Elsaesser, p.250).Women has been looked down upon as an inferior gender. Women have no any power, command or guts to fully face men in competitions. All the big posts, honors, roles are viewed to have been bestowed on men. Anti-Feminism is any choice away from a woman it involves violating her rights specifically because of her gender because she is a woman. In Modern feminism is that some feminists seem to be limiting their goals on women’s choices. It’s as if you can’t choose a family on your policies and conditions and still be considering a strong woman. How is that empowering? Are there rules about if, when, and how we love or marry and if, when, and how we have kids?  There are jobs that women can’t have to be a “real” feminist (Elsaesser, p.50). These limitations seem anti-feminist in fundamental principle these clearly show gender inequality in the American society.

A vampire also shows moral decay in the American modern society. Youth in America has fantastic and burning issues that are contrary to norms and principles of the American society.  A large number of the American teens have given in towards some strange behavior (Ohba, p. 112) they have dropped the religious, safe and accepted practice and followed the unwelcomed behavior. Youths have engaged themselves in evil actions like engaging in sex activities, an act that banned in the society. Due to this, statistics shows that a vast number of American youths suffer from STD diseases at a very young age, around 15-25 years (Elsaesser, p.34). They also encounter high death rates.

That’s a little bit of species pride talking; it’s not accurate. They’re also a bit conceited and megalomaniacal, thinking they’re the best solution to solve a planet’s problems by moving in, killing its dominant species and taking over their bodies. And, truth, their society is idyllic and near perfect. There’s no more crime. No poverty (Higashino, p. 34). Fantastic health care. They don’t even use the money. Everyone takes what they need and nothing more. But is harmony worth the price?

The Host is meant to be a horror film. According to the genre formula of horror films, most of them are expected to end badly but this is not the case for this particular film. Instead, the ending is a happy one. This makes the film hard to predict (Ohba,p.19) The film is therefore very interesting and the use of characters like monster is giving different depiction, as we usually see monsters as imaginary creatures that shows predicts fear in the society. In the other hand we find that these character being friendly to human and not really playing their usual role. This makes the film give out a different impression and more interesting and it is even more difficult to come up with a conclusion.

Work Cited

Choi, Jinhee. The South Korean film renaissance: local hitmakers, global provocateurs. Wesleyan University Press, 2010.

Elsaesser, Thomas, and Malte Hagener. Film theory: An introduction through the senses. Routledge, 2015.

Higashino, Keigo. The Devotion of Suspect X First Edition. Minotaur Books, 2011.

Ohba, Tsugumi. Death Note, Vol. 1. VIZ Media LLC, 2005.