Korean Movie Night: The Host 괴물 (2006) Korean

Song Kang Ho, Byun Hee Bong, Park Hae Il, Bae Doona, Go Ah Sung

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

We watched this one because besides being famous, it was the week of Halloween and we wanted to watch a scary movie... this movie is not scary.  I would not count it as horror, more of just a monster movie- a baby on the scale of Gojira (Godzilla), but the same kind.  In fact, when I found out that it was based on a real life event, when a Korean mortician working for the U.S. military dumped a bunch of formaldehyde down the drain and substantially into the Han River.  This turns it, like Gojira , into an anti-American film, as it focuses more on the effects of American involvement and attitude.  It is a political statement, not a horror movie.  I would even say that the real monsters in the movie are not the actual monster, but the U.S. Military and how they handled the situation.  The fact that they spread a mass virus hysteria because one of their soldiers died fighting the monster, while off duty, and that they would willfully turn Korean citizens into lab rats to cover their tracks just reinforces the theory.  Then there is the obvious stab with the thinly veiled reference to Agent Orange, renamed Agent Yellow, as the bio weapon used to combat the creature.

The monster itself is just not scary because this movie is old and I was super underwhelmed at the CGI.  It was meant to look like a giant mutated salamander or some other kind of amphibian, and it actually made me giggle when it first came out and went on a rampage.  But this was 2006, so try not to judge it too harshly.  I feel like the CGI budget was used up on the scenes where the monster would swing on the bridges in the sewers to travel, and climb up the the walls down to the pit where it would spit out it's victims.  It had moments of coolness, but was still an early example of CGI monsters at best... or maybe worst.

102. Grandpas Over Flowers Investigation Team 꽃할배 수사대 (2014) Korean

Lee Soon Jae, Byun Hee Bong, Jang Gwang, Kim Heechul

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A-/C-

This show is so funny.  Especially at the beginning when things are more lighthearted, I was constantly laughing really hard.  But its the sort of funny where you have to have watched a decent amount of Korean dramas and/or know Korean culture and pop culture well, because this is just full of cultural puns.  It's about four young and dashing police detectives who are put on a special investigation team to find these missing people.  One of the found dudes is at least 30 years older than he's supposed to be.  Then, as they dig deeper and find more, they end up jumping into a vat of suspicious liquid to save some more now elderly missing peeps three of the four pop out suddenly 70+ years old.  The once hot Choi Jin Hyuk is now played by Lee Soon Jae, The pretty dimples boy Park Min Woo is now Byun Hee Bong, and muscle boy Park Doo Sik is Jang Gwang.  Only Heechul is the same age (duh duh duh mystery!)  So the now grandpa investigators have to find the scientific criminal group Goldfish to get the antidote to make themselves young again and stop them from playing with people's lives.  It's hilarious because you have the suddenly old people humor, with all that a young person in an old body could do and all the glorious fart humor that comes with old people humor.  You also have polite speech humor, as the younger team members are suddenly grandpas while the older team member is still young looking.  Then you've got word puns that Heechul's character is constantly using.  Also there is the mystery of the ones behind the crime.  It's also in more of a serial format, with smaller cases being solved every episode as well as they get closer and closer to the Goldfish climax.  It was a very enjoyable show, even when things got more intense and serious.  There was never a part I didn't like.  If a trope was used, it was more of a parody and used appropriately.  Great little funny crime show.  Great ending too.