The Host

I know the Melbourne International Film Festival isn't over yet for 2006, but I'm calling it: my favourite film of MIFF06 is The Host (Gwoemul). A Korean horror/comedy featuring a truly disgusting mutant monster which crawls out of a river and terrorises a town (and one foolhardy and stupid family in particular). It is scary, funny, satirises authority, gives insights into the Korean viewpoint on the USA and into the authoritarian tendancies of the Korean government and more importantly is scary and funny.

Unlike many monster films, this one is not scared of actually showing the creature - it is full-frontal on screen for a surprisingly large chunk of the screentime and looks pretty damn good (except for one scene right at the end). The male lead, Kang-ho Song, is very funny - and I have a particular soft spot for him because he was in the first Korean film I ever saw - No. 3 (back in 1997) and was also in Park Chan-Wook's JSA

An awesome film by Joon-ho Bong. Go see it!