20 Amazing South Korean Movies You Must See Before You Die

After success with a true life serial killer drama on Memories Of Murder, Bong Joon-ho returned by switching things up with an old school giant monster movie as a freakish enormous tadpole creature terrorises downtown Seoul.

Never quite going where you might expect, The Host is a horror-comedy that twists and turns from knockabout slapstick to surprisingly real-feeling scares.

Bong's regular lead Song Kang-ho plays a clumsy, inept snack bar worker with Bae Doo-na (one of the girls from Take Care Of My Cat, these days better known for appearing in several projects from the Wachowski sisters) as his champion archer sister. But the real star of the show is the weird amphibious monster, a strange, slimy, primal beast and a design and effects triumph for a movie with a fraction of the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster.

As with Bong's other movies, there is a strong social commentary element to the comedy on show in The Host, inviting its audience to root for the average, down at heel schmucks against uncaring government bureaucracy and American militarism.

This was enough to grant the film the rare accolade of being both a hit in South Korea and praised by the government of the North as well! And who can blame them? The Host is a modern monster classic.