TIFF REPORT: The Host Q&A With Director Bong Joon-Ho

Although it was exciting to have Bong Joon-ho on stage to field questions from his enthusiastic Ryerson audience, the interaction was somewhat marred by a translator whose halting translations proved more difficult to understand than Joon-ho's Korean. For example, I could clearly understand that he was talking about the Loch Ness Monster--he named it as such--but she interpreted it as the "Nessie Monster." The Nessie Monster?! Huh? After the clear and articulate translations of Kore-eda's comments at the screening of Hana, the translations of Joon-ho's comments reminded me that it's a real catch-as-catch-can when it comes to these public Q&A sessions with foreign directors. I really wish they would have found someone more fluent in English to maximize the discussion because I don't really feel we were given the best of what Joon-ho had to say.

Notwithstanding, Joon-ho was asked how San Francisco's Orphanage (who did the effects for Hellboy) became involved in the project and why they were chosen to achieve the creature design for The Host? The Orphanage was only one of three visual effects companies involved in the project (I couldn't understand the translator with regard to the other two) Three countries were involved in the modeling and computer graphics--America, Australia, New Zealand and, though by Hollywood standards, the budget was small; by Korean standards it was huge. The budget determined the choice of studios, with SF's Orphanage taking about half of the budget for their effects.

As to how he came up with the idea for the film and whether its origin was with his highschool days, Joon-Ho concurred. He grew up near the Han River and developed many fantasies there. He was fascinated by stories of Scotland's Loch Ness monster and frequently wondered what would happen if the monster lived in the Han River? He became intrigued by the prospect of combining the intimate, familiar space of the Han River with sci-fi.

Asked about the political subtext of the film, Joon-Ho related that an insistent questioner at Cannes kept pressing him to admit that the monster in The Host represented the United States. Though he couldn't deny this interpretation, it was not really the intention of his film, though it could be included into the various satirical visions incorporated into the film to describe Korean family life, especially those socially-oppressed factions whose concerns the system cannot effectively address. Political subtext, Joon-Ho suggested, can be frequently associated with any kind of monster movie, not just his.

He was asked why, in the final scenes of the film, the family was not affected by the release of "Agent Yellow." "Good question," Joon-Ho quipped in English and his audience laughed. There's really no answer for that, but, the joke around the set was that the lower-income characters has a better resistance to the poison than the more refined upper classes who reacted by vomiting, collapsing, etc.

One questioner interpreted the fish spit out by the monster at the end of the film as some kind of "spore" or offspring, suggesting a sequel, since the original has done so well box-office wise. Joon-Ho qualified that the fish was not really a spore, it was just a spit-out fish, and no, he has no current plans for a sequel. However, he would welcome some other director stepping up to the plate to have a go or, if he were to undertake it himself, it would be exciting for him to correct the mistakes he made during the making of the original and to go further with the things he learned.