I first expected it to be BABEL, which I saw on New Year's Day, think, or the week after. Then I thought it would be PAN'S LABYRINTH, which came the week after. I didn't think it would be either BLOOD DIAMOND, THE ILLUSIONIST or THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, and sure enough, neither film disappointed me. Surprisingly stiff for me was a film I expected to love - LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA - and I didn't manage to emotionally engage that well with a film I've waited years for - THE FOUNTAIN. So perhaps it was to be NOTES ON A SCANDAL, but I'd describe that as a strong film, not an essential one.

The first essential film of 2007 is...

... I can't believe I'm saying this...

THE HOST.

Oh yes. It's a beauty. Don't find out much in advance, keep your wits (and your WIT) about you, and have all sorts of fun with this charming (!) Korean monster movie.

I'd say more, but that'd be wrong. Except this - this is really what LADY IN THE WATER could have been had the director dumped the whole self-conscious fairy tale thing and just stuck to charming ordinary people trying to deal with a Scrunt among them. It also has - strangely enough - BABEL's depiction of the Americans. And one of the early setpieces really does bring to mind CHILDREN OF MEN's mise-en-scene with a couple of the extended takes involving the big bad guy in broad day light.

Like, this thing: http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/host

I got the Korean release of the soundtrack (much cooler looking cover, by the way) but I've only had the chance to listen to it once so far. I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite Byeong-woo scores, but there was some interesting stuff there none the less. I'll have to listen to it again soon, but I remember it getting pretty neat toward the end of the CD.

NP: The Host (Lee Byeong-woo)

1. A family mourns the loss of a member - the 'mourning' scene, with such abandoned grief and people falling over each other, is unbelievably funny.
2. The 'barbeque' - 'You people are feasting out here!'
3. The scene where the river tourists see something interesting in the water, and respond with mass pollution.
4. The escape scene from the hospital... that crazy circus waltz coupled with the sister's not making it to the car.
5. The 'information scene' where the man in the yellow suit falls over. (Always a great gag.) To follow this with the man then going to the tv to make sure he's giving out the right info, and then with the main character thrown into a bodybag!
6. The scene where the family wait 2 minutes for their noodles to boil. (Even before the grand-daughter mysteriously appears in the scene!)
7. The grandfather's monologue to his sleeping children. That he continues even when he knows they're asleep with his boring tale... beautiful.
8. The grandfather's finale scene was very moving too. Not much that I found funny about that.
9. The uncle with his molotov cocktails... South Korea has a generation of unemployable young tertiary trained individuals like this who can only use their student rioting skills to good effect.
10. The boy waking up immediately for dinner in the final scene... with the two talking over the TV. Very cute, and cheeky.
11. I loved that the monster was thrown out to us first thing... it's such a different thing for one of these movies to do.

I also just loved the way there was an interesting political critique going on. Every institution of South Korean social infrastructure - hospitals, universities, police (there's another great scene - the interview with the policeman at the hospital!), military, scientists, news... only the family comes out strong. (Perhaps the South Korean parliament escaped unsinged too, but I suspect if we'd heard that final TV report, I'd think differently.)

And the US cops the worst beating of all. I gather what was going on behind the scenes was that after initially favouring tactical aid, the US stepped back decided to ignore the real problem of the monster, instead taking advantage of the opportunity to trial-run an anti-biological agent on an urban populace, using a phony virus as the motivation. Of course everyone buys the story, and even when there's local resistance, a protest march against Agent Yellow, none of the students actually care about the real problem in their midst... a MONSTER.

THE HOST is a really interesting name too, since the idea of the monster being a 'host' is revealed to be a phony well before the end. 'The host', like the virus being hosted, is a thing that was invented to justify something else entirely... a mad social craze unrelated to the real problem of the monster. Only the family that has lost something to the monster actually cares about that real problem. Everyone else is caught up with crazy spin-off effects.

END SPOILER