Did you see The Host? I didn't think so. Despite it being one of the better-reviewed movies of the year (92% fresh, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and at Cinematical both James and Jeffrey liked it, to varying degrees), what was most commonly called 'a Korean monster movie' failed to cross over to a broad audience outside South Korea, where it smashed box office records. It was by no means a complete failure -- it earned more than two million dollars in its US release, a very respectable amount for an arthouse picture -- yet something limited the word of mouth. Was it the unusual mixture of genres, the hairpin curves shifting from dysfunctional family comedy/drama to horror and then back again? Were people expecting more rampaging by the monster? Were the Korean cultural references and political satire too confounding? Was it the subtitles? I saw it with two very different festival audiences (Fantastic Fest in Austin: mostly Caucasian; AFI Fest in Los Angeles: mostly Asian), and both received The Host rapturously. As a big fan of the film, I'm as baffled as anyone else. Perhaps people will respond differently, and in greater numbers, when the next Korean monster movie, D-War opens in late August and Los Angeles is terrorized by a giant serpent. Freestyle Releasing certainly must hope so; it's planning to put that sucker out on 1500 screens, according to Variety. D-War stars Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster (yay!) and Chris Mulkey; with the latter two personal faves on board, it can't be all bad. The budget was originally reported to be $70 million, though Korean producer/distributor Showbox now says that price included start-up costs for a local effects house. Even at a reported $32 million, the budget is three times what Showbox forked out for their previous monster movie (you guessed it: The Host). Frankly, the trailer on the Korean site looks pretty cheesy; still, it's in English, it looks to have some camp appeal and late August is traditionally a dead time at the box office, so maybe the kids will check it out. May the best monster win.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-05-2007 @ 6:55PM
AJ said...
Perhaps The Host didn't do good because there was little to no advertising. I didn't see a single commercial for the movie.
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6-05-2007 @ 7:16PM
Abe said...
I was so startled when I went into the theater in its second week and there were only two other people there. Maybe the genre-blending did it; not devoted to the thrills enough for the horror-fans, while turning off the art house crowd by appearing to be a simple-minded monster movie (though it was anything but simple-minded). And yeah, the marketing definitely should've been better; even on-line the hype was limited. Maybe it will take off on DVD?
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6-05-2007 @ 7:23PM
Matthew Watts said...
I don't think it was available to watch in any theaters near me, but it did not go unnoticed by me at all. I saw it in Entertainment Weekly, I saw the trailer on another website, and it is in my Netflix Queue, waiting for its release.
I am excited to see it, I've heard only positive things about it, and if it's good, I'll definitely pick it up on DVD or Blu-Ray.
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6-05-2007 @ 10:19PM
fignuts said...
I almost died when I read the word "D-War". (Except change "died" to "pooped" and "almost" to "explosively") I have been looking for this movie for years. I watched the korean trailer a long time ago. The supposed release date came and went. I kept searching for info about a US release, scanning P2P for bootlegs, but to no avail. I'm glad to know this is finally coming out over here.
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6-05-2007 @ 10:31PM
Dickens said...
I saw this movie sometime last year. on my own TV. I actually really liked it.
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6-06-2007 @ 10:32AM
Joseph J. Finn said...
Host was such an unexpected pleasure.
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8-06-2007 @ 2:17AM
Annie said...
I saw D-War in Korea last week! it blew me away!
the truly amazing effects are a GREAT achievement for an Asian film coming VERY close to US standards-
it's not "Casablanca" and i dont think it's meant to be~ it's a RIDE- a GREAT feat and REALLY fun!! Go see it!
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