The film revolves around Park Hee-bong, a man in his late 60s. He runs a small snack bar on the banks of the Han River and lives with his two sons, one daughter, and one granddaughter. The Parks seem to lead a quite ordinary and peaceful life, but maybe they are a bit poorer than the average Seoulite. Hee-bong’s elder son Gang-du is an immature and incompetent man in his 40s, whose wife left home long ago. Nam-il is the youngest son, an unemployed grumbler, and daughter Nam-joo is an archery medalist and member of the national team. One day, an unidentified monster suddenly appears from the depths of the Han River and spreads panic and death, and Gang-du’s daughter Hyun-seo is carried off by the monster and disappears. All of the family members are in a great agony because they lost someone very dear to them. But when they find out she is still alive, they resolve to save her. –IMDb
BONG Joon-ho studied Sociology at the Yonsei University and graduated from the Korean Film Academy. By 1995 he made three short films Memories in My Frame, White Man and Incoherence. He wrote and directed his first feature, Barking Dogs Never Bite, which won a Fipresci Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2001. His second feature Memories of Murder won the Silver Shell award for the best director in San Sebastian Film Festival in 2003. In 2006 his third feature film, The Host, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. —london.korean-culture.org
Nice monster but I wasn’t scared. Too many questions. 1. The monster literally springs full grown from the river and starts eating humans. How did it know it had a taste for us? 2. No one has seen the monster before yet it is expert at swinging along on the girders under a bridge. 3. There’s only one? 4. Is there no 911 in Korea? I mean, if you’re in big danger and your phone battery is running down who do you call? I know for sure my family would not react the way this one does! This film cries out for Joel and the Bots.
"After giving free-floating dread a gargantuan, tentacled form in The Host, Bong Joon-ho returns to human-sized monsters in Mother." Fernando
Disregarding the heavy-handed anti-americanism seen in the initial lab scene and the not-so-clever allusions to Agent Orange, Gwoemul is an amazing film about family. Yes it is a monster film and yes… read review