Ton Chatree, the young boy being uprooted from his normal school and group of friends to attend a boarding school far from home, first views his being sent away with great resentment and ignores his father who he blames not only for sending him away but also for having what seemed to be an affair with a younger woman. Ton has quite the difficult time adjusting to the new location, which is large and intimidating and comes with a student body that does not seem ready to accept any new kids into their groups. Around this time, the bulk of the “scary” moments begin when Ton is told two ghost stories about a pregnant teen who hanged herself and a boy who drowned in the pool. I think that the way in which these ghosts manifest for Ton in a terrifying manner simply mimic his underlying feelings about being in a new location. Moving from the known (normal school and town) to the unknown (the new boarding school) is enough to scare any young kid, so it is certain that Ton’s feelings towards the school found a catalyst in these supernatural encounters.
In this way, as Ton grows more accustomed to his new surroundings, he also makes friends with a fellow classmate Vichien who seems to empathize with Ton’s situation. Vichien and Ton’s relationship could only be an allegory for Ton Chatree’s transition from a complacent victim to one who is dealing with a new situation the best way he can. He is no longer feeling sorry for himself about being sent to boarding school (though he still refuses to speak with his father), and thus is no longer being victimized by things that go bump in the night. On the contrary, Ton seems to be learning that perhaps this new place isn’t so bad and begins to befriend not only Vichien but also still-living classmates such as Doc Nui or Peng. He even manages to get himself interested in a girl!
Finally, to solidify the allegory, Ton aids his deceased buddy Vichien to break free of the vicious cycle wherein Vichien must reenact his death at the exact same time every night, and by doing so, Ton enables his best friend to pass on. If we are to assume that the ghosts are supernatural manifestations of Ton’s feelings, then this would mean that Ton has released his inner “demons” and fully accepted his new life. He begins wearing the gift his father gave him (which he had refused to wear before), is accepted by his peers as an equal rather than “the new guy,” and even reconciles with his father. There’s no doubt that Ton has embraced the new situation, responding with happiness as opposed to fear, and there are no longer any ghost sightings in the dorms of the boarding school.
The Host (2006, Joon-Ho Bong)
There’s something about a monster movie that hails back to the days of drive-in theaters, extra buttery popcorn and cheap theater tickets. As long as film exists, so too will those films about giant terrifying creatures preying upon unwilling humans. With this in mind, we settled down in our Asian Fantastical Cinema movie to see The Host, one of South Korea’s highest ever grossing movie and also remains in Quentin Tarantino’s (the man behind Pulp Fiction¸Kill Bill and many more) top ten of all time.
The first part of The Host that jumps to my mind is the way in which the United States and, by association, Western culture is portrayed in this film. It opens with an American doctor ordering a Korean subordinate to poor bottle upon bottle of formaldehyde into the Han River, showing little concern for the effects that such a chemical would have upon the living creatures who call the river their home. The interest here is two-fold; firstly, it exhibits a careless attitude towards nature that the filmmaker must assume we Americans possess (and he is not entirely incorrect on this count), and secondly, implies that the Koreans (possibly, by extension, all of Asia) kowtow to American will. This is only further compounded by later scenes in which an American doctor comes in to perform and operation on Gang-Du’s (the protagonist) brain while fully understanding that the virus he seeks does not exist. Combine that with the unnamed U.S. citizen who “valiantly” gets his arm severed by the creature in an attempt to play the hero, and what we’re left with is a biting parody criticizing the way the U.S. behaves itself abroad.
However, it must be noted that criticism of the United States is not the only parody to be found within this movie. The basic premise, a monster being created by chemicals dumped into the Han River (perhaps composed of many different river animals, judging by the fish that falls off of the monster’s body), clearly is stressing the disconnect between the human world and that of nature, pointing out the disconnect between the two. I would certainly argue that Joon-Ho Bong seeks to open the audience’s eye to this issue and succeeds in making the viewer aware of just how poorly we treat our world. Yet this is not the only thing being treated poorly in the film, and it could be possible that Joon-Ho Bong also criticizes his home government for mistreating its own people and we get a lot of soft undertones about student protest (Nam-Il is mentioned to be a former activist, those protesting the unlawful holding of Gang-Du etc).
Moving beyond this parody, The Host really seems to center on Gang-Du’s coming of age tale where he supposedly transforms himself from a hopeless git to model parent. He begins the tale asleep, and indeed spends much of the movie like this (when not frantically searching for his missing daughter), mistaking another girls calls for her father to be Hyun-seo. The second time he makes a mistake proves to be fatal for his beloved daughter, and Gang-Du spirals into a feverish search for the one person he really seems to care about. As the film progresses, so too should Gang-Du’s maturity level, but it seems to lag behind. I think for this movie to work, we have to assume that this man is just a bit off, thus relieving ourselves of any sort of frustration born out of the choices he makes (especially when he miscounts how many bullets he has left). Lucky for us, Gang-Du finally shows a glimmer of hope by taking in a small orphan boy who had previously been forced to steal from others as means of survival and also by ridding himself of that awful bleach-blonde dye job.
Even though this may have been my third viewing of The Host, it only seems to increase in depth each time I watch it. I can certainly see why it’s rated so highly on all film websites, and definitely has a comfortable spot in my Top 100 films of all time. This being said, the pacing at times can grow a bit too slow, and the action involving the monster doesn’t have as much terror as it could have. All in all, though, one certainly could not afford to miss The Host.
Monster Mouth looks like Genitals/10
And that's it! Check out http://www.getrightmusic.com/2010/06/16/mixtape-veterano-barbeque-blends/ while you're here, and props to A-Ton for the link.
GT out.
PS: Got a mix in the work dubbed Demasiado Fuerte (Street Fighter aspects inc)
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ReplyDeleteWhile the bulk of you're blog was shallow and pedantic, the link you provided at the end to the incredibly tasteful mixtape and amazingly articulate writing of the blogger A-Ton more then made up for the read.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. It's true, A-Ton does seem to be the better blogger. Perhaps we could collaborate on a short film or some raunchy midnight sex.
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