The Host

Bong Joon-ho's South Korean monster-movie hit is the most dynamic and vital creature feature to invade American screens in years. The host of the title is a mutant that slurps out of Seoul's Han River and gallops through a riverside park with the thundering charge of a rhino with writhing tentacles, gobbling citizens and snatching a schoolgirl for a later snack. "The Host" stirs a stew of genre conventions, from political commentary to dysfunctional family satire to earnest emotional pathos, into an often thrilling monster movie as indebted to the B-movies of 1970s American drive-ins as it is to Japan's Godzilla-spawned industry. The single-disc edition features commentary by Bong (in English) with critic and Asian film expert Tony Rayns, a five-minute interview featurette with Bong (in Korean with English subtitles), and deleted scenes. The two-disc special edition also includes the "Making of The Host With Director Bong Joon-Ho" featurette plus a host of short pieces on the different aspects of the special effects and design (all in Korean with subtitles), audition tapes, cast interviews, storyboards, and other supplements. Also available in Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.