INTERVIEW WITH THE HOST DIRECTOR BONG JOON-HO

INT: What was your primary inspiration for The Host?

JBH: At first I was inspired by the space that you can see in the poster. If you look at the apartment buildings you can see where I lived when I was younger. Looking out over the Han River I always fantasized about what would happen if a Loch Ness Monster came out of the river even though I never told anyone about it. Having it in my head for twenty plus years, it just grew and grew, I suppose like a real monster would! When I decided the time was right to make the film people told me I was out of mind.

INT: Well in America at least, genre film has been viewed primarily as a vehicle for entertainment. Lately we’ve seen many very, respected director’s dipping into it. But even here you stand out. You seem to use genre as a background for the story you want to tell and the characters you want to present, I’m thinking of Memories of Murder here as well.

JBH: A story in many ways is a story, genre or no. Memories of Murder is a serial killer film but it also offered me the chance to look back at the eighties and the military dictatorship. The Host offers a similar point of view about authority. I am concerned that we should protect the weak, the individual. They are always dwarfed by societal systems in that sense they can be like monsters. A monster genre film seemed a great way to explore this. But genre certainly isn’t just a means to an end. I’m a great lover of genre film.

INT: Me too, especially monster movies. I thought it was interesting that you decided to let us see the monster right away in your film. Usually directors make you wait an hour, then show you an eye or a tail etc.

BJH: I’ve always hated that convention and couldn’t wait to break it. And the narrative structure of The Host demanded I kill the curiosity about the creature early on anyway. I wanted people to focus on the family and the film’s political satire so the best thing was to throw everything at everyone at once. That’s how real tragedies occur, all at once, with no time for us to prepare for them. My visual inspiration for the opening sequence was the famous running of the bulls at Pamplona with all of it’s chaos of mass energy. You have all these individuals running around but they almost seem to represent one thing- the crowd but I present a POV in the film that breaks that down. In the end I hope you see that it’s all about people.

INT: We live in a time when political satire is bigger than ever. Yet times of political satire often presage times of great conflict. What are you hoping The Host inspires in people?

BJH: Political satire is such a big part of the monster genre anyway. When you look at the films of the forties and fifties it’s obvious and we actually used an real life case history- the McFarland case, for our story. The American military really did pour formaldehyde into the Han River. In the end whether it’s the military, the government or just other individual human beings, the thing I wanted to satirize was that noone was helping this family and that the people who were supposed to be actually made the problem worse and worse as it went along. The aftermath becomes almost worse, or in some cases worse, than the actual tragedy because the people in charge are so flustered. Then, and here is the real comedy/tragedy, individuals stop functioning as a community and suddenly everyone is looking out for number one. The reviews have been good and it seems to be provoking discussion wherever it’s shown, in whatever country. In the end it’s just good to be part of everyone’s discussion.

INT: What other projects do you have lined up at this point?

BJH: I have two projects currently under way. One is a film with no computer graphics about a Korean mother; the other is laden with computer graphics and is based on a French science fiction graphic novel tentatively titled in English Snow Train or Snow Piercer.

INT: There is an American remake of The Host in the works right?

BJH: Universal bought the rights last year but I haven’t been contacted about, or expect, being involved. That’s fine. These other projects have got me really busy anyway.

INT: You speak of the creature in somewhat sympathetic terms. In fact we’re sort of sympathetic with everyone in the film. It suggests a compassionate POV. What do you think prompts that for you? Is it a spiritual point of view?

BJH: Life is so complex and we are intertwined in so many ways that we can’t even see. Bad things happen and as tempting as it is to point our fingers at one another when they do happen it just doesn’t seem all that honest to me. What else can you do but have compassion on the weak, and we are all weak. The weakest person in the film is the younger of the two homeless brothers. And it’s through a relay of other weak people who are willing to make sacrifices to protect him that he is able to eat the hot meal at the end of the film. This is the warmth you feel coming from my film.

The next part of the interview suffered from a combination of bad tape and spotty translation. Then again Dave’s memory isn’t what it used to be. Those used to reading my interviews can make up their own mind. – Dave

Actually we’d like to legally disengage at this point with anything Dave says.- Todd

INT: Did you have any input from Godzilla, or Mothra or Ghidora or any of the other large movie monsters? Did any of them want to audition for the film?

BJH: We told them all Thank you but we jut didn’t have the budget to accommodate them. Think of Kraft Service alone! This seemed to hurt Godzilla’s feelings but he was too old for the role anyway. And Elizabeth Taylor also expressed some interest but we would have had to CGI her tail since hers isn’t what it used to be. In the end we went with a smaller unknown monster the folks from WETA helped us find.

INT: But if you did a sequel the monster could always fight Predator or Alien?

BJH: Actually we’ve been in talks to do a crossover film with the Little Miss Sunshine people. The monster would make its way to America and chase them in their broken down van.

Before he left Bong gladly signed a customized autograph for our Ed. Todd which reads, “Todd, You look great in hot pants. Thanks Bong Joon-ho"