The Host is a movie that can be both enjoyed as a simple monster flick, but also as a satirical commentary on US Foreign Politics.

On one hand, we are presented with a family drama plot that focuses on rescuing Hyun Seo, daughter of the protagonist. On the other hand, we are witnessing the inept behavior and planning from the government, which is too heavily influenced by the American presence. The at times ridiculous and uncaring attitude of certain groups of people did frustrate me to the core, but it was an important part of the storytelling that made the movie more impactful.

The performance was stellar. Song Kang Ho and Byun Hee Bong left such a strong impression on me. Not one performance felt off or below the standard set by the main cast.

I also appreciated the still camera shots that allowed me to truly grasp the situation and focus on the actors' performance and delivery. The directing wasn't distracting. It was a great balance of impressive and aesthetically pleasing shots (the visual aspect) and great storytelling.

Overall, even though the movie was made almost 15 years ago, it aged really well. It did not feel dated, the effects and CGI were good. To some extent, it is a statement piece, so reading about the inspiration and political background of it, makes it a better watch.

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I could have enjoyed it way more, if it was not for the poster and synopsis, which are completely misleading. What I expected was a simple dark revenge story, that is led by violence and desperation. What I've got was two kids (as Bok Sun developmentally wise could be considered a child) running away from a serial killer and some unnecessary family drama.

It should have been a game of wits (on Tae Soo's side) and will (on Bok Sun's side), but the chase between them barely took place. We've got a serial killer being used by his family members and Bok Sun trying to run away and be safe with Na Ri, whom she started treating as her sister. It's hard to even say this movie had much tension, because every time something interesting happened, we were back to some useless side plot lines.

That said, the acting was quite good. Especially closer to the end, Min Ki truly gave the "monster "vibes" and delivered a creepy performance. Overall, rather than a terrifying killer, he looked like a loser.

I didn't quite understand the tone the director and writer wanted to give this film. The differences between funny, bright and silly moments with Bok Sun did not match the serial killer gore and craziness of Tae Soo, and that did not match the family dynamics happening in the side plot. All the new scenes got me out of the mood the previous scene had gotten me into.

Overall, I kind of had fun, but because of the synopsis I kept anticipating the fight off between the two main characters and the cat and mouse chase, when I don't really know who the cat and who the mouse is... but it never truly happened.

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It tried to be dark and Scooby Doo at the same time...

...and I'm not sure it worked out well.

The thing is, the plot is quite interesting. I was curious about what will happen and where the events are leading me. The way it was presented, though was quite questionable. They switched from fun Sherlock Holmes with bits of Scooby Doo, to dark, gruesome and disturbing in between scenes. In the end, it was neither a light, fun and entertaining crime story, nor a psychological thriller with fantasy elements. Not to mention the pacing, with the first half of the show being just a long exposition, and the second half not having enough time to truly dive into the main villain's plan and the interesting interactions between him and the leads.

The best aspects of the show are the characters and the aesthetics. All four of the main cast did an amazing job portraying their given characters. The relationships between them were formed in a natural and gradual way. I truly believed that they became close friends by the end. That said, saying this show has a bromance is an overstatement. Not every male friendship would be a bromance, and here it did not feel like what I would usually call one.

Gu Ying, was for me, a star of the show. I liked her from episode one till the last second. She was strong and vulnerable at the same time. She was loyal, brave and driven. She was a bit of a busybody, but that made her character more realistic and adorable.

As I mentioned, the show is extremely aesthetically pleasing. The whole folder of the screenshots I took proves it. The set design was amazing, and the cinematography quite nice, taking into consideration, the whole plot takes place technically in one city.

So, what were my problems? As I have already mentioned, the weird mix of fun, light detective work and the dark and disturbing plots/scenes and the pacing were the main flaws. I have to add the police chief, who was more or less useless, and yet was given more screen time than Lan Lan, who was one of the main characters.

While the songs and instrumentals used in the show were good, the placement of them was unfitting at times, which ruined the emotional aspects of quite a few scenes.

Overall, I kind of had fun? I liked the first and second half for different reasons. The first one focused more on the main characters and their detective/investigations, seconds went full craze and entertaining. They, sadly, did not match well together. With the ending presented, I am going to pretend the second season does not exist and put that story to rest.

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Urban legends - crime edition...

...but there were not enough crimes nor urban legends. 2 out of 3 stories were technically driven by crime that is linked to the Futmalls.com website, yet I felt like there was barely any investigation going on. It wouldn't bother me much if we got to see more of the background story of said website and its products - did not happen. The mysterious products linked all the plot lines, but at the same time, the whole story led to nowhere.

That said, I still quite enjoyed the drama. "Best-selling author" was a perfect opening for a short show like that, "No chance to grow" hit harder on the emotional side and "Air doll & Internet celebrity kidnapping" made a quite weird, but interesting ending. If we can even call it an ending.

The show does not have the greatest cast of the characters. Bai Yong Xin was the most fun and interesting one to watch. On the other hand, Zhao Xu Zhen, Yang Nian Jun and Li Zhong Wei were painfully stereotypical. I guess, these types of characters actually work well for the "urban legends" kind of deal. That said, Nian Jun was presenting some next level of poor and dumb decision making skills closer to the end of the show.

The quality of the production was quite high. I liked some transitions between frames, especially during the questioning of the witnesses/family members scene in the first episode. The special effects were nicely done too. I have to appreciate the makeup artists that worked for them, for the well done bruises that looked truly realistic.

The acting was good. The roles were not exactly that demanding nor required amazing acting skills. I was most impressed by Phoebe Huang during the "No chance to grow" story - her emotional delivery was quite nice.

If the news about season 2 comes out, I might add 0.5 to my story and the overall rating, since it seems like a nice introduction to a larger plot, but is questionable as a solo project.

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A good movie that wanted to cover too many plotlines and topics.

At first, the movie starts with an interesting topic of religious freedom and how loose laws can support the creation of various cults, which will pray on people's beliefs and convictions. Sadly, as the plot progresses and the supernatural aspects are being introduced, the initial meaning and message about the fake religious beliefs in cults makes no sense, since the investigated by the Park Woong Jae events do involve a "higher power".

Plot wise, it was just too much. Crime investigation, cults research, demonic twins, Deer Mount cult, immortality and the whole lore and background surrounding Buddhism - at least half of it should be cut off. The movie would be far better if it either was psychological thriller without supernatural elements, where Park Woong Jae works with police to uncover the truth behind the cult OR movie focused only on supernatural, without any crime connection, with Park Woong Jae, as a person with much doubt, being challenged about his beliefs as he dives into the Deer Mount cult case.

One thing that the show did extremely well was the visual aspects and (except for one scene) special effects, make up and set design. Chun Na Han's dream sequences were truly well done and beautifully shot. Even though the scenes were quite simple, they did carry the meaning behind them well - the guilt and mental struggle of Na Han.

Overall, I wasn't bored, but I did question some choices that were made. While the plot is not that hard to understand, the message is not so clear. Would recommend it as a group watch, since the movie has a few plot twists that would be entertaining to try to predict while watching with others.

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Good premise, but the writer tried too much to shock and surprise the viewers.

It's hard to review this show, as there is close to no valuable content in it. There are two massive plot twists close to the end that make the majority of the plot redundant or have the plot have no effect on most of the characters. The stakes were non existing. There was quite literally no character development, not only for the mains, but also for all the supporting characters.

Maybe, if the finale was stronger and had a nice conclusion, it could make the show decent, but the last 4 episodes were painfully bad and rushed. They tried to connect all the dots (there weren't really that many dots to begin with if I must be honest) in the last 15 minutes, so when the show ended I just sat there and asked myself: that's it?

Soo Min was an amazingly annoying character who made mistakes and had to be saved right till the end of the show and, with how the plot was written and structured, it was impossible to actually give him the development needed. He was the center part of the plot and the only one who truly was affected by everything that was going on.

The supporting cast was quite nice, but yet again, all the characters were more or less ruined by that one unfortunate plot twist.

The good? Most special effects and possession scenes were nicely done. The visual aspects of the show were truly good and I enjoyed the soundtrack, especially just the instrumental parts.

Overall, I quite honestly would not recommend it to anyone.

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Love the directing, editing, acting and aesthetic of this, but I was questioning some of the writer’s choices for both the characters and plot lines.

First, I don’t quite get the mother’s character. She switched from crazy to normal to crazy far too quickly without truly good reasoning. Matsuda Yusuke's massive love was at least weird. They tried to somehow explain it with the origin story, but even that brought more questions and annoyance.

So why do I have a problem with the origin of the newspaper? It had no place in such a short drama. With the past story, the whole new world of possibilities has been opened, but close to nothing was explored. The dynamics between characters have changed, but it was not organic enough for me to accept, it was a normal progression in the story. Sometimes not explaining every detail and keeping viewers in the dark till the end is a better choice. Nothing's more scary than the unknown.

The mechanics of the Terror Bulletin were also questionable: Can the same bulletin be delivered more than once? Why would past bulletins work? And wouldn't the last episode "cheat way out" not only not save her receiver but also create more victims?

I have to say though, I enjoyed Shiraishi Sei’s performance a lot. The character was well written and realistic. It showed some flaws and the bad/questioning choices were almost made. The will to survive and the empathy in her were a nice internal conflict that had me shocked a few times.

That said, the ending disappointed me greatly. It should have ended around 31 minutes in the last episode. That would be a nice commentary on how selfish people are, and the fact one good person cannot fight it on her own.

Do I think it’s scary? No. Not only that, but I believe some of the deaths could be seen as funny for few viewers. I found them disturbing and weird, but they never frightened me. The plot got a bit messy closer to the ending, but it was an enjoyable watch with a few good pictures created.

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Plot twists built on other plot twists and the constant killing with seemingly no explanation.

Did I like the movie? Yes. At first it was hard to get into, but as more and more people died, and all the explanations given or guessed by me turned out to be false, I started to enjoy it more. Why are people dying around Ga In? Why is everyone trying to kill her? The movie presents few answers, but at the same time dismantles them with new information. Plot wise, even though fairly simple, will keep you interested. It dives into the dark topic of who and for what reasons could kill and how much of the external factors are needed to convince them to murder.

The best performance award in the movie goes to Lee Kan Hee for playing Ga In's mother. That once kitchen scene truly impressed me.

What else did I like? Some pictures created were amazing and shocking. Especially two scenes: the hospital scene from the beginning and Ga In's dream with the ceiling involved (once you watch it, you will know).

Any warnings? Some scenes are graphic, blood is more than present more than once. It's also an older movie, so expecting extremely high production quality would be a mistake.

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I’m not sure what happened in the whole show? I was in love with episode one, but later my enthusiasm died down. The last two episodes brought it back though.

I loved how over the top and slapstick the comedy was at the beginning, but as more episodes came out, they were less grounded in the situation and plot, and more of mini comedy skits. That's not exactly my type of a show progression, but I still enjoyed it.

I really liked the dynamics between Nott, Pun and Arm. This type of love line was overdone so many times, but here, a simple take on the story was perfect, since the surroundings were so crazy. Not only that, Nott’s character was quite well written. His “what is love” scenes were surprisingly heartwarming and deep. For a sitcom like this they, quite straightforwardly, talked about consent when someone is intoxicated. Big plus. Overall, lots of depth under all that silly comedy.

I must say, I was quite impressed with Yoon’s acting too. All the supporting roles were overacted (that was a stylistic choice for the comedy bits) so the tone down and more natural acting delivered by the main cast balanced it well. I actually wanted to rewatch some scenes simply because I liked what Yoon did with Nott’s character.

WARNING FOR VIEWERS! The whole show is quite an “acid trip” in terms of editing. There are many weird sequences with flashing lights and loud sounds. If you are sensitive in terms of visual stimuli, I would suggest skipping this show completely.

Overall, it’s a light (borderline dumb with some bits) show that should never be taken seriously. If you don’t like sitcoms, you most likely won’t like this too. It’s extremely unrealistic and silly, but that's the charm and the point of it. Even with some over the top elements, it has quite a few nice messages hidden between the comedy skits.

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While I usually love some complexity for crime driven dramas, the setting of this one made it impossible to enjoy.

My expectation might have had a big impact on how I view it. I was hoping for a rather simple plot with some amazing characters to dig deep into. The sad truth is, the plot was "complex" but full of predictable traits. We had some amazing characters that were never really used to their full potential. It would be much better if the whole story truly revolved around the kids, and no adult was connected to the cases. If we could get the "kids can do evil, kids are not all innocent" kind of scenario.

The whole drama should focus more on what is happening in school, but it didn't. The more the plot progressed, the more side stories we've got: prosecutors’ story line, an investigation by the police, adults’ politics, corruption.

If you set your drama in the school, you should use this place to its full potential, and that's what they did at the beginning. We’ve got to know the dynamics and rules of their school life, the background for the main characters, how they interact with adults, who is the top dog and how they use their power. But the further we got into the plot, the more unnecessary grown ups doing adult stuff we've got. The drama switched from being "school" to "crime/corruption" kind of story.

How amazing and tragic of the ending we would get, if they didn't show Beom Jin's father much. If we weren’t sure if he was connected to the case, it could have been only Beom Jin's view of it. And when we finally get that last court scene, he truly was just helping Soo Ah and there was nothing more going on between them. We could see how Beom Jin's obsession about his image ruined him and his family. How the lack of communication and keeping secrets can lead to a tragedy. It would have more heart and value. The true ending was simply disappointing.

Overall, the drama was kind of enjoyable, but definitely not because of the plot, but rather a few characters I liked. I skipped some scenes, especially the investigation ones, which I often watched at 1.5x speed. The trend of mixing everything in the plot and making it more complex than it has to be is really popular lately in dramas, and this one is not an exception.

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One too many twists.

Honestly speaking, I don’t even think the story was bad. the directing though, missed a lot of basic elements.

The scenes simply do not transition in a smooth way. Everything feels so out of place. Random private naked yoga classes turned into kamasutra scenes, a random detective story, which technically makes sense (people are dying after all), but never matches well with the main story. It honestly felt like they stitched scenes together without actually taking into consideration if they create a cohesive picture and explain the story well.

By the end of the movie they present one too many twists so rather than an interesting (though slightly overused) turn of events, it all becomes confusing.

The acting was bad. Lee Chae Young easily did the best, but all the rest of the cast was questionable at best. Felt like the actresses were cast for their bodies and not their acting skills.

Overall, skip, don’t bother watching.
(more about the directing fail in the comment below)

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Good execution of a basic story.

While the movie has high production value, good writing and great cast, it brings exactly nothing to the table. We have seen this story in a similar setting quite a few times.

These are always the same questions: What does it mean to be human? How far can we go to survive? What can we do for power and control? What makes some movies tackling these ideas stand out more than the others are cast/performance and the unique setting. Medical trials on clones is not exactly an out of the box idea. And with that, the movie is interesting and enjoyable, but easily forgettable. Sure, a few scenes showcasing Seobok’s special abilities were fun and more unique takes on the typical clone scenario, but surely not enough to make this production outstanding in any manner.

Gong Yoo carried the whole film on his shoulders. The performance saved a rather stereotypical character. On the other hand, as much as I like Park Bo Gum, he made me feel exactly nothing as I was watching Seobok. What’s worth mentioning - the small beef between Chief Ahn and Kim Cheon Woo was probably the most entertaining aspect for me.

The production was great. A high budget movie delivering high quality effects and action scenes.

Overall, a good watch, one that most would enjoy. Will I remember it to later recommend to others? Probably not.

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Back at it again with building the atmosphere…

And not relying solely on jump scares. While it did not have a well structured plot nor interesting characters, it still managed to present an interesting style of filming with ambiguous and distorted visuals.

That said, I did enjoy it more for the “vibe” and not the plot itself. I don’t think the story had much to offer. The mystery and the past was presented in an unnecessarily confusing way and some bits of it were added just for the shock value, as they made little sense in the context of the plot itself.

They spent quite some time building up the female lead and her ability to see ghosts, while it had little to no impact on the story itself. And there were quite a few random plot points that were there just to fill the screen time. Since they took their sweet time with that first act and second act, the ending seemed rushed making the pacing of the whole movie seem a bit off.

Acting wise I don’t have any complaints. Big props to Miyano Hina who played Maya - the girl had some moves. Miyoshi Ayaka as the lead felt flat. With that type of story and with how much her character was involved in it, the emotions seemed just too diluted.

The visuals though were truly nice. There were a number of scenes I thought were cleverly shot and presented.

Overall, a nice watch, but there are other movies I would recommend before this one.

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Expected a goofy horror, got a tragic tale.

I did not expect a semi-solid plot when I started this movie. The last 30 minutes makes the film worth the watch. Don’t get me wrong though, there is not much depth. It’s tragic, sad, and at times infuriating, but there is no social commentary about what happened, and the ending might seem a bit disappointing.

Still, there was a lot of potential. Especially surprised by well constructed plot twists that added layers to the story. It was also visually great - none of the special effects seemed cheap, no typical ghost with long dark hair creeping around. There was a clear vision on how the movie was supposed to look like and what story it was supposed to tell.

It’s worth knowing there are some triggering scenes in the movie - a few more clearly shown than others, but they might be too much for some viewers.

The acting was decent. Honestly speaking, except for Cheryl Yang, none of the other cast members had the opportunity to even start flexing their potential skills.

Overall, surprisingly nice, way better than I expected just based on the synopsis and my previous experience with randomly picked Chinese horror movies.

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So good and fun it should have been a series.

It still works perfectly fine as a movie, but there is just so much to explore and both the characters and connections between them could have been more deep and engaging, if this was more than just a movie.

I finished it, liked it, was entertained from the beginning till the end, liked the characters, even ones I was skeptical about at the beginning, and yet the last thought I had - I needed more.

The characters were too diverse for this length. I did not get enough well paced character development from Mikado Kosuke, not enough in-depth exploration of Hiyakawa Rihito’s trauma and how he dealt with it for years, not enough time to truly understand and accept Hiura Erika’s actions. I wanted more background about the past events for the 3 main characters. More conversation about the power of belief in contrast to the power of not believing.

So many cool concepts, ideas and stories that could easily fill a short series. The source material was made for it, and yet all we’ve got was a movie. A good movie, but it could have been great.

On the note of source material, I tried to read it, but the sexualization of the connection the main leads had was just distracting and a bit ridiculous. The sensual exorcisms just made me laugh, so on that aspect, I’m actually happy the movie changed things up. I would appreciate a clearer indication of the feelings they had for each other, but there should be a middle ground between what was in the manga, and how much the cut out for the movie.

Acting was great. Shison Jun’s emotional scenes got me good. Especially the one after he passed out. The build up of the emotions the character was experiencing in these few minutes was delivered in a perfect fashion.

What’s more - the film was beautiful. Maybe it just fits my aesthetics, but I loved every frame of it. I also appreciate the gore that was excessive at times, but not gross and cartoonish.

One thing I would complain about was the soundtrack going from church choir to old school games. At times it completely did not match the scene it was played for.

Overall, I would recommend it. If you know the source material and expect a BL, this ain’t that. But it’s a nice story that vaguely touches on some interesting concepts.

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