The Host (South Korea: Bong Joon-Ho, 2006)

  

The Host (South Korea: Bong Joon-Ho, 2006: 119 mins)

Carvajal, Nelson. "Bong Joon-Ho: Living Images, Moving Frames." Balder & Dash (July 1, 2014)

Chung, Hye Jean. "The Host and D-War: Complex Intersections of National Imaginings and Transnational Aspirations." Spectator 29.2 (Fall 2009): 48-56.

Hsu, Hsuan L. "The dangers of biosecurity: The Host and the geopolitics of outbreak." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Koski, Genevieve, et al. Family Matters, Pt. 1 - The Host (2006)." The Next Picture Show #199 (November 5, 2019) ["Korean director Bong Joon-ho has a long-running interest in films about family, one that’s mirrored in two of his best-known films: His international breakout THE HOST and his new film PARASITE, both of which star Song Kang-ho as a father trying to keep things together on his kids’ behalf, and both of which are about the sense of duty among protagonists who have to improv their way through unexpected situations. In this half of our pairing, we revisit Bong’s monster movie THE HOST with a focus on its human cast and their family dynamic, and consider how the film’s political and emotional elements square with Bong’s insistence that there is “realism” at the heart of this movie about a rampaging fish-monster."]

---. "Family Matters, Pt. 2 - The Parasite (2019)." The Next Picture Show #200 (November 12, 2019) ["Bong Joon-ho’s new PARASITE feels weirdly similar to his 2006 film THE HOST, even though there’s no monster in sight — unless you count entitlement, inequality, and greed as monsters, which given how they shape PARASITE’s story, maybe you should. But it also features the return of Song Kang-ho as a father figure, albeit a more capable and traditional one, and a story shaped by Bong’s obsessions with family bonds and duty. In this half of our Bong pairing, we look at all the other things these two films share, from their thematic and visual fixation on high and low spaces, to how they utilize humor ranging from the slapstick to the ultra-dark. "]

Lin, Ed. "This Side of Parasite: New Korean Cinema 1998–2009." The Current (November 2, 2020)

Lukaslak, Beata. "The Host: The Monster Emerging From the Han." Senses of Cinema (September 2013)

Prewitt, Zach. "The Best Horror Cinema of the 21st Cinema." (Posted on Vimeo: October 2016)

Turner, James Lloyd. "Monstrous Dialogues: The Host and South Korean Inverted Exile." (A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Liberal Arts, Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida: March 5, 2012)