Twenty years in the past, in a 2006 interview with a Korean newspaper, Bong Joon-ho made a shocking assertion about his then-new horror film, The Host. The director, who would go on to make Parasite, Snowpiercer, and Mickey 17, revealed that the mutated monster from The Host was primarily based on an precise creature he’d noticed in Seoul’s Han River, 19 years earlier.
“I do not know precisely what it was,” Bong mentioned on the time. “What is obvious is that it was a dwelling creature, and it wasn’t human. Its measurement was most likely much like a monster from a film.”
I got here throughout this weird element whereas doing analysis on The Host for an interview with Bong himself. (The movie turns 20 this yr and is celebrating with a 4K remaster and a return to theaters.) So once I get on a Zoom name with the director, it is one of many first issues I ask about.
“Attending highschool comes with numerous strain,” Bong tells Polygon. “In order that’s possibly what led to that sort of a delusion.”
OK, thriller solved. Bong Joon-ho did not really see a mutated river monster when he was in highschool, however he did think about one underneath the strain of college-placement exams. (His youthful obsession with one other well-known monster might need contributed, too, however we’ll get to that in a minute.)
Learn on as Bong solutions six of our most urgent questions on The Host, whereas additionally teasing his upcoming animated characteristic, Ally, which shares a shocking reference to the 20-year-old monster film.
1
What’s completely different about this new 4K model of The Host?
Forward of the interview, I acquired a digital copy of the remaster and watched a number of of my favourite scenes. This new model of The Host appears superb, particularly the CGI used to create the movie’s iconic monster. I puzzled if maybe Bong and his group had executed some touch-ups on the creature, particularly for the reason that authentic movie had a famously small finances. However in line with the director, no particular modifications have been made to the movie.
“Our total objective within the restoration was to recreate that feeling of watching a 35-millimeter print, the best high quality print on the primary day of launch,” Bong says. “In fact, it was a digital restoration, however that was our objective to make use of the digital restoration to create that movie look of watching the movie on a top quality print for the primary time. There wasn’t something that we modified digitally.”
2
So did Bong Joon-ho really see a river monster in highschool?
Once more, the reply isn’t any, however Bong’s full response reveals much more concerning the early inspirations for what would ultimately turn out to be The Host.
“Attending a Korean highschool comes with numerous strain,” he says. “It is a very robust setting. So I should have been in a fairly fragile psychological state again then, the place I used to be having some form of delusion.”
That mentioned, Bong factors to 2 different components that may clarify why he thought he noticed a monster again then — and the way we wound up with a film like The Host within the first place.
“What was not a delusion have been two information,” he says. “The primary reality is that the place that I used to be dwelling in on the time, our condominium was close to the Han River, and I might see the river on daily basis. And the second reality is that I used to be very keen on the Loch Ness monster. I might attempt to search out articles and pictures of the Loch Ness monster. And so these two issues mixed in my thoughts, the truth that I used to be seeing the Han River on daily basis and I imagined what if a monster just like the Loch Ness monster appeared on this river that’s proper in entrance of me.”
3
Will he ever return to horror?
Whereas loads of Bong’s films have horror components (Parasite has some moments of terrifying stress), he is by no means actually returned to the style since making The Host. In response to the director, which will change quickly.
“It is not a monster film, however there are horror thriller concepts that I am growing in the mean time,” he says. “My iPad is all the time stuffed with film concepts, and there are 5 proper now which can be turning into extra particular. And out of the 5, two of them may very well be categorised as horror.”
He additionally notes that whereas his subsequent film, Ally, undoubtedly shouldn’t be a horror movie, the upcoming animated characteristic does have one factor in frequent with The Host.
“I am in the midst of the post-production of my new animation film,” Bong says. “It has many creatures, and one of many creatures actually appears like a monster, however a really humorous monster. He is fairly the character.”
4
How the American army (and American films) impressed The Host
The inciting incident in The Host entails an American physician ordering his Korean subordinate to pour a considerable amount of formaldehyde right into a drain that dumps into the Han River, which ends up in the creation of the mutated monster. This scene attracts on an actual incident that instantly impressed Bong’s film.
“The scene of the formaldehyde being dumped is predicated on an precise occasion, the McFarland Incident, that occurred in 2000 in Korea,” he says. “On the time, there have been numerous environmental teams that have been protesting in Korea. That truly felt like the start of a horror movie to me.”
The opposite direct inspiration for The Host‘s premise is pure fiction.
“Possibly you bear in mind a film referred to as Alligator — a really attention-grabbing American monster film from the Eighties,” Bong says. “That film has an analogous starting. There is a chemical experiment they usually launch a child alligator into the sewers. That alligator later turns into this large monster. That is a movie that I used to be actually keen on on the time.”
“These two concepts mixed and that led to the political satire and the whole lot else that is proven in The Host.”
5
Was Godzilla an affect?
In earlier interviews, Bong has pointed to his love for the Godzilla films as a direct inspiration for The Host, however once I convey this up now, he deflects, pointing as a substitute to 2 different fan-favorite monster films.
“I preferred the Godzilla movies once I was youthful. I might see them on TV. And I used to be additionally fascinated by the characters that appeared with Godzilla, like Mothra. However Godzilla did not instantly affect The Host,” Bong says. “The monsters are very completely different in measurement. I needed a monster that wasn’t destroying buildings, however was extra life like and may very well be present in actual life — a monster that would presumably cover between buses.”
“On the time of creating The Host, I used to be most likely extra influenced by Ridley Scott’s Alien and John Carpenter’s The Factor. So I used to be really drawn to monsters which can be smaller in measurement.”
6
How Bong filmed The Host’s epic ultimate scene
The Host facilities on the Park household, led by the lazy and buffoonish Gang-du (Music Kang-ho), who’re struggling to get by even earlier than the monster steals Gang-du’s daughter and disappears. On the climax, the Parks reunite and face off in opposition to the beast in an exhilarating sequence that ends in a hard-earned victory and an emotional household reunion.
The ending greater than holds up 20 years later, particularly with this beautiful remaster, however trying again now, the first emotion Bong remembers from taking pictures that scene is embarrassment.
“The issue was, it was at an actual location, the riverbank,” Bong says. “It was not a soundstage, just like the Alien films. Lots of people have been there watching the very well-known Korean stars doing one thing on the riverbank. However sadly, there was no monster on set, in fact. So we have been doing very unusual issues within the air. We have been pretending that there was one thing there. Music Kang-ho was already an enormous famous person in Korea on the time, and he was screaming and doing these loopy issues and folks have been watching and questioning like, ‘What the hell is he doing?'”
Capturing that second, we simply felt embarrassed.
“Capturing that second, we simply felt embarrassed. We have been simply hoping they’d watch the movie later with precise VFX. However that is the predominant emotion I bear in mind from taking pictures that scene: embarrassment.”
When storyboarding the scene, Bong additionally needed to be extraordinarily sparing in his use of the monster as a result of movie’s restricted finances.
“It was a really robust course of as a result of we had a brilliant restricted finances for VFX,” he says. “In case you really rewatch it once more and depend the variety of instances the monster is definitely proven in its entirety, it is really not many pictures. I may solely use seven pictures of the monster on this sequence.”
“With out the monster within the body, I needed to make the viewers really feel the existence and the scariness of the monster. I needed to preserve the fear all through the scene. I had to consider how am I gonna do this with out really displaying the creature? And in the long run, I consider that led me to be extra artistic.”
The Host returns to theaters on Nov. 20, 2026. Tickets can be found now.