September 03, 2006

Japan to Korea: You stole your monster from us!

(Posted In Action Animation Asia Horror Random Geek Talk )
The Host opened this week in Japan and the net is alive with flaming accusasions that Bong Joon-ho copied the idea for his monster, Gwoemul from the monster Waste No. 13 from WXIII Patlabor. Now I wish I could translate Korean and Japanese writing because there is a comparison drawn between the two here.

Hoga News did have this say. These are the close comparisons between the two monsters...

Waste No. 13
1. A secret biochemical weapon made by the US military escaped to become the monster
2. Anti-US message is included
3. Some battles take place in sewers
4. [Spoilerific death-reveal removed by the powers that be]

Gwoemul
1. A biochemical waste of the US military caused the birth of the moster
2. Anti-US message is included
3. Some battles take place in sewers
4. [It's the same death, but we're not telling you what it is.]

Sadly this story and issue is being blamed on anti-Korean sentiment. No official comments have been made by anyone associated with the film and no one from the press has really picked up on this. Fortunately.

Then browsing through the comments of the EnjoyKorea comparison article I found some other links tha may interest you.

There is extensive conceptual art here, here and then one that includes a shot of the Aliens from Alien Ressurection here and another Alien comparison to Waste No. 13 here, then Waste No. 13 with James Cameron's Aliens here which shares other ideas than just creature concept. And then this is just some very cute comic strip just to blow off some steam so we all don't get worked up about it.

Again, I wish I knew more than just how to order drinks in Korean and/or Japanese to translate what the comments are saying. But it seems clear that someone is saying there is no grounds for the protest since its been done already. Many times.

» Posted by Mack at September 3, 2006 07:02 PM
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Reader Comments


"Don't link to them if you don't want to know too much about Gwoemul's appearance"? Uh, haven't you just given away a whopping amount yourself with those screens? ;) I'm not too miffed myself, though I was hoping for it to be something of a surprise, but some people who really love their monster flicks might be...

» Posted by Eight Rooks at September 3, 2006 08:05 PM

The conceptual art linked here actually shows a fair bit less than some of the posters do. I did remove the death spoiler, though ... naughty boy, Mack.

» Posted by Todd Brown at September 3, 2006 08:38 PM


Oh, I just meant the pictures above, seeing as how some sites - Grady's and Twitch, I think - were making a little bit of fuss about "don't look at these links if you don't want to know what the monster looks like!" and, well, you've just shown us. XD But eh, I'm not too bothered.

Although heh, I'm glad I didn't read those four points too closely!

» Posted by Eight Rooks at September 3, 2006 09:07 PM

Yes, in hindsight the warning is still redundant. Thank you, Eight Rooks. Duly noted and removed. And the death thing? Good call. But Todd’s misspelling of the word ‘power’ has been changed too. Naughty Todd.

» Posted by Mack at September 3, 2006 09:29 PM

Hmm.. strange that they'd steal a monster from such a crappy movie. Everything else Patlabor rocks, though.

» Posted by David at September 4, 2006 01:23 AM

I think the third Patlabor movie is a little underrated, IMHO. Just don't jump on this "occasion" to bash this movie...

» Posted by axleu at September 4, 2006 03:04 AM

Anti-Korean sentiments or not, they are pretty similar. It wasn't really the pictures though, but more the conceptual comparisons that swayed me.

BTW, I just noticed the "digg this" links. Very cool, and I'll be sure to digg an article if I feel it would be a hit with the community.

I think I've considered posting a Twitch article on digg before, but decided against it when I imagined what the digg effect might do to your server!

» Posted by Elusive at September 4, 2006 05:30 AM

I'm not really going to complain about monsters being so similar to each other, it's happened so many times before, and the Host is so damn good.

Bias? Hell yes. :(

» Posted by Esh at September 4, 2006 08:43 AM

the similarity between "three" monsters is beyond doubt but this doesn't stop me anticipating "The Host" :)

» Posted by Toros at September 4, 2006 09:16 AM

Similarity? Are you serious? You could say the same damn thing about almost every monster in any monster movie you've seen. It's always a copy of something else, with a different twist to it.

Also to equate a anime rendered monster to a fully CGI one is more stupid. There are sites FX and Orphanage sites that describe the specific processes used to create the monster in "The Host". Here are some links:

http://www.vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=319b255d&atype=articles&id=2963

and

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3678

I hardly call that copying, especially when that process is waaaay more detailed than no 2D animated drawing from a bad movie.

Im sure there are similarities, which may have resulted in the creators borrowing from other monsters (and no its not THIS Japanese one either) but its not no "copy". Read the links above, that will tell you "how" they created the monster.

» Posted by Peter Sung at September 4, 2006 11:26 PM

hey Peter, thanks for the links. really interesting details!

» Posted by arsonist at September 5, 2006 01:01 AM

A look at the yahoo Japan movie comments page, man were they nasty. Rip-off asides, the general consensus seems to be that this is just a mediocre b movie. Seen-it-all, done-it before. The special effects weren't particularly impressive, acting were awkward, so they can't fathom how this 'crap' (their word) could wow Cannes audience, and question korean people's taste and if this can make a big fuss, or is it because Korean people rarely see monster movies or what not. (because as we all know Japanese people get attack by giant monsters all the time...)

» Posted by bertol at September 5, 2006 05:23 PM

You think if the movie wasn't so darned popular and smashing records that the Japanese would be making such a fuss? I never heard a peep out of them when Ring Virus was released.

» Posted by TiGrBaLm at September 5, 2006 11:16 PM

Popular?
Smashing records?
Japanese theatres showing "The Host" are already near empty.
Considering the massive advertising campaign,
the film is a dismal failure.
TiGrBaLm, please stop pulling facts from your arse.

» Posted by Gaijin at September 7, 2006 08:42 PM

He's not wrong. It is popular... in the country it was made. South Korea 12.3 million tickets sold. I just saw it today at an international film festival (the director was there too) and I personally thought it was pretty good. The people who wrote that review up top probably didnt see the movie because the CGi looked fantastic compared to anything I've seen in all of Asia. Plus if it was a B Movie then the Patlabor movie would be considered a B-Movie as well. The fanboyism from Japan is expected. Patlabor Mobile Police is a popular series in Japan. People will defend it even if the series creators don't care. Much like Cantonese who love Infernal Affairs are against The Departed (like myself) even though the creators sold the script to Hollywood.

» Posted by ShazBo at October 1, 2006 08:21 AM

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» Posted by pzcwexi rloehkf at January 17, 2007 07:33 AM

Good site. Thanks.

» Posted by audi tt at January 30, 2007 05:29 PM

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