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''The Host'' (''Gwoemul'', as it's known in its home country) is a critically-acclaimed 2006 film by Bong Joon-ho, combining aspects of the [[Kaiju]] movie, the political satire, and the family dramedy. It absolutely swept the Blue Dragon Awards and the 1st Asian Film Awards. It's also one of [[Quentin Tarantino]]'s favourite movies of recent times.
 
After an American military pathologist stationed in Korea dumps over 100 bottles of formaldehyde down the drain (this part really happened and was a big scandal in the newspapers, although a company dumping MILLIONS''millions'' of liters into the same river went largely unnoticed as it was done by a local company and not the Americans), a mutated, twenty-foot tadpole creature shows up on a beach and eats a bunch of people before disappearing (this part didn't really happen).
 
The main character, Park Gang-Du, is the father of one of the people who was eaten, a thirteen year-old girl named Hyun-seo. He's also more than a bit of a screw-up, and not a very good father, though extremely loving. After her funeral, at which he and his father, Hee-bong, are reunited with political activist brother Nam-il and Olympic bronze medalist archer sister Nam-joo, everyone who was present at the attack is required to go to the hospital; the Korean government, under pressure from the Americans, speculate that the creature may be carrying some hideous new disease, and they want to make sure it's contained. On his first night in the hospital, however, Gang-du's cellphone starts ringing: it's Hyun-seo, who is not dead. The creature regurgitated her out into a hole in the sewer, where it appears to be saving her for later.
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* [[Animal Nemesis]]: Averted, due to Korean [[Values Dissonance]]. "If a beast kills a man, then that beast should be torn limb from limb."
* [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]]: At least, we ''think'' it's a tadpole. It could be a lungfish or something.
* [[Anticlimax]]: {{spoiler|Nam-il slips and drops his last Molotov. Pleasantly averted a few seconds later when Nam-joo shows up, though.}}
* [[Badass Bystander]]: The American soldier who emerges from the crowd and tries to fight off the monster during its first rampage. A later news story reveals that he died of his wounds.
* [[Badass Family]]: The entire Park family. Nam-il gets special mention for dual wielding [[Kill It with Fire|Molotov cocktails]], though.
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* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Around the beginning, a businessman is jumping off a bridge, and catches a glimpse of the creature just before he jumps.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The film deliberately evokes the SARS crisis, bird flu, and the Agent Orange bioweapon.
* [[Eagle Land]]: The film's portrayal of America is ultimately ambivalent: while the government is satirized rather viciously and there are one or two evil onesAmericans, an American soldier bravely gives his life trying to save a few people from the monster. [[Word of God]] says: "It's a stretch to simplify ''The Host'' as an anti-American film, but there is certainly a metaphor and political commentary about the U.S." This is probably why North Korea permitted the release of the movie and had good press about it. The sequel is apparently going to target the People's Republic of China, who [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|deny the creature's existence]].
* [[Eye Scream]]: {{spoiler|The creature's death, which involves being shot directly in the eye with a flaming arrow}}. Nam-Joo also pulls off an [[Unflinching Walk]] in this scene.
* [[Grievous Bottley Harm]]: Nam-il gets a bottle broken on his head by a hobo.
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