Tag: Bong Joon-ho

 

Let me tell you about a scene from SNOWPIERCER.

Here’s what you need to know about this, the 5th film by South Korean master director Bong Joon-ho. Earth is frozen. The remaining people live on a train that circles the globe once per year. The poor people are herded into the back cars, while those in “economy” and “first class” continue to enjoy the pleasures of bourgeois life up front. Those in the back—like Chris Evans’ Curtis—are essentially living through holocaust-like conditions as the film begins, 18 years after the train first began rattling over the frozen planet. Bong’s picture opens on them, living in squalor, covered with dirt, and planning out a revolution.

 

When THE HOST was released in 2006, the traditional monster film had not had a presence in popular cinema for some time.  There was a brief blip with ANACONDA in 1997, but the box office failure of GODZILLA in 1998 indicated that monster movies were no longer a draw.  After all, films about giant other worldly monsters attacking the small humans below them are associated with the red-scare films of the 1950s and 1960s.  These films are now appreciated more for their campy fun, than their ability to draw an audience.  With film production costs increasing, along with the demand for realism in our CGI, studios were unwilling to invest in a no longer marketable genre.