Who Are the Monsters Here?

If you took a bit of "Godzilla," a dash of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest," a pinch of "Alien," a slice of "Little Miss Sunshine," threw in some "Jaws," and rolled it all together, you might end up with something like "The Host," the weird — yet weirdly entertaining — movie by Korean writer/director Joon-ho Bong.

As much as it refers to, and often parodies, past movies of the monster genre, this surreal science fiction/comedy is nothing if not original.

It is closing time at the morgue. An American scientist orders his Korean assistant to dump out his entire inventory of toxic chemicals because he finds the bottles covered with dust. He does, knowing they drain directly into Seoul’s Han River.

A couple of years later, a Korean man in a trench coat (the scientist? It is unclear) warns of something lurking deep in the river, before leaping to his death.

Fast-forward several more years. An old man (Hie-bong Byeon) runs a food stall by the river, where he also lives with his feckless son Gang-Du (Kang-ho Song) and the son’s daughter Hyun-seo (Ah-sung Ko). A hideous mutant — let’s call it Land Squid — emerges from the water and begins consuming the fleeing multitudes. It sweeps up Hyun-seo in its prehensile tail and takes her to its lair, touching off a search by her father and their dysfunctional family to rescue her.

Throughout the ensuing nearly two hours, our protagonist Gang-Du leads us on a journey through low comedy, dark satire, family tragedy, an increasingly bizarre series of through-the-looking-glass events involving doctors, Americans, oblique political commentary and just enough shock and horror scenes to keep our adrenalin pumping.

It’s darn near impossible to make sense of it all, and a lot of it just doesn’t. Where is the military and what is it doing? The authorities seem intent only on capturing Gang-Du and his family because they are carrying a "virus," of which the monster is "the host" (hence the movie’s English title).

Later, a kooky American doctor informs a Korean colleague that there really is no virus.

The monster kills his victims, yet doesn’t seem to eat them, until late in the movie we suddenly see evidence of actual digestion (think owl pellets!).

Most egregiously, much of the action of the movie seems to revolve only around the family, especially at the end. The rest of the world suddenly falls away, and things that happen to other people inexplicably don’t affect them, or vice versa. Is this a deliberate choice by Mr. Joon-ho?

Yet for all its inconsistencies, the movie is propelled by a strange kind of internal logic toward its murky conclusion. The peculiar dynamics of the family, which also includes Gang-Du’s college-educated brother (Hae-il Park) and a sister (Du-na Bae) who competes in world-class archery meets but always seems to be a step too slow, are amusing, believable, and well played by all. Kang-ho in particular makes you feel his character’s passion to save his daughter during the course of the film.

Lastly, there’s the creature itself, brought to life by impressive special effects that make it authentically organic and downright slimy. Unlike King Kong, this beast has no upside, and we don’t feel any pity for it. That keeps our attention largely focused on the human animals and the full spectrum of good and bad human qualities that are the director’s real subject here.

"The Host" is rated R for creature violence and language. I swear, I don’t make these categories up! It is playing at The Triplex in Great Barrington, MA.