The Host.
Lazy, unintelligent Park Gang-du works for his father, Hee-Bong, at a small food stand on the bank of the Han River. While his daughter, Hyun-seo, and his father watch his sister, Nam-joo, compete in a national archery competition, Gang-du, along with other onlookers, notice a large, mutated creature stirring under a bridge; the monster soon ventures onto land, beginning a rampage of terror as it devours all those in its path. While fleeing from the beast, Hyun-seo is snatched away across the river, leaving Gang-du to attempt a foolhardy rescue, ultimately in vain. At a mass funeral for those killed by the creature, the Parks are joined by final sibling Nam-il and, after mourning and fighting, are informed that the monster is host to a virus and that anyone who has come into contact with it is to enter quarantine and undergo tests immediately. After receiving a phone call that night from an alive Hyun-seo, the Parks escape the hospital and begin a daring search, while being hunted themselves by the authorities. Bong Joon-ho’s The Host is a monster flick that defies genre convention by revealing said monster in full early on and in broad daylight. This decision allows the rest of the film to focus, not on the monster nor on how humanity at large deals with the threat it poses, but on the effect the monster’s actions has on one dysfunctional family. The Host is let down a little by subpar visual effects, but this should not detract from the sentiment of the film: a touching, funny, tragic and satirical tale of family, guilt, loss and perseverance; even more relevant in this COVID-riddled future than upon its release in 2006.
Caché.
Middle class French couple, Georges and Anne Laurent, discover a videotape inside a plastic bag lying on their porch; contained on the tape is hours of footage of the exterior of their house. Confused as to the purpose and origin of the tape, the Laurents consign it to either a prank from a friend of their 12-year-old son, Pierrot, or a fan of Georges’ literary television programme. When a second tape arrives accompanied by a violent childlike drawing, with similar threatening pictures sent to Georges’ office and Pierrot’s school, the Laurents seek assistance from the police; they refuse to help however, deeming the events “harmless”. As the tapes continue and the couple’s marital problems begin to surface, Georges begins to suffer from vivid dreams and partial recollections of his childhood and his adopted brother Majid, whose Algerian parents worked for Georges’ family and were apparently killed in the 1961 Paris massacre. A real master at work here, writer and director Michael Haneke utilises few cuts and long, silent, tense shots to seriously unsettle his nerve-wracked audience, while Juliette Binoche steals every scene she’s in as she conveys such intense fear and anguish it’s impossible not to feel for her. A comparison could be made to Haneke’s 1997 nerve-shredding Funny Games (review available) where the home invasion is quite literal, Caché’s intrusion is more perverse in that the antagonist wishes to impose themself on the Laurents’ life from afar. A fascinating psychological thriller that allows the viewer to ruminate, not on who sent the tapes, but on the guilt of Georges and of France and of all colonial empires. Speaking of colonial empires…
The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
County Cork, Ireland. 1920. All outdoor public gatherings are outlawed. The abusive British Army reprimand a group of Irish locals for their participation in a hurling match; one such local, Micheál, is executed for refusing to provide his name in English. Despite the murder of his friend and the offer from his military leader brother, Teddy, to join him in the Irish Republican Army, Damien O’Donovan maintains that he will head to London in order to practice medicine. On the day he is due to move however, Damien witnesses the violent intimidation of Irish railway personnel by British soldiers after they are refused entry onto a train; in response, he remains in Cork and enlists in the IRA. The first mission in Damien’s retaliatory campaign against the oppressive British forces is the raid of the local “treacherous” Royal Irish Constabulary; revolvers stolen during the raid are soon used to assassinate four Auxilleries, the aftermath of which will shape the the lives of both O’Donovan brothers. Blog regular Ken Loach’s brutal historical war drama, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, juxtaposes the bleak, somber atmosphere of the Irish War of Independence with the beautiful, lush Irish countryside, while maintaining themes of societal and political change. A thought-provoking piece that inspires the viewer to read up on an area of history that is wilfully excluded from the British school curriculum.
Munich.
The 1972 Summer Olympics. Munich. Palestinian terrorist group Black September storm the athletes’ village taking nine Israeli athletes hostage, after killing a further two, and demand the release of political prisoners held in Israeli jails. When the hostages are killed in a failed rescue attempt, senior Israeli officials plan their response. Mossad agent Avner Kaufman, son of a war hero and father-to-be himself, is selected for a strictly off-the-record mission: find the eleven Palestinians across Europe responsible for the Munich massacre and eliminate them one-by-one, by any means necessary. Accompanying Avner in the assassination squad are South African getaway driver Steve, Belgian toy-maker turned explosives expert Robert, former Israeli soldier and “cleaner” Carl and Danish forger Hans. Between carrying out their hits and receiving intel from French informant Louis, the team question the morality of their mission and the lengths to which they will go for revenge. A particularly dark chapter in the seemingly unending Israel-Palestine conflict, Munich is an entertaining and haunting espionage crime thriller, yet it loses sight of what it wants to be. Director Steven Spielberg has his hands full attempting to fit the whole saga into the 164-minute run-time and the one-dimensional characters, blunted story arcs and quasi-philosophical ponderings suffer for it. Certainly watchable, even engaging, but felt like there could have been more to this.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
Imprisoned for thirteen years for the kidnap and murder of a 6-year-old boy, reformed female prisoner Lee Geum-ja is released and welcomed by the preacher who, convinced of an angel lying beneath her witch exterior, aided her spiritual transformation while she was incarcerated. Geum-ja’s repentance and kind-hearted reputation among inmates is quickly revealed to be false as she dismisses the preacher and sets about finding those she helped inside as she enacts an elaborate plan, thirteen years in the making. The final instalment in Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance trilogy (following Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, though only linked thematically hence the inclusion), Lady Vengeance is a compelling, shocking thriller that reveals aspects of its protagonist’s character and motivations slowly through intricate editing of prison life and post-incarceration freedom, causing the viewer’s perception to change continually throughout. Elegantly beautiful cinematography, a stunning baroque score, whispers of ultra violence as well as deeper considerations of morality lend themselves to this brilliantly weird, bordering at times on the surreal, champion of South Korean cinema.
Back to the Culture 