‘Nobody helps the family.’ South Korean Cultural Identity in Bong Joon-ho’s The Host (2006)

Terence McSweeney

doi:10.21049/ccs.2010.20..279

Cross-Cultural Studies

2010, 20(), pp.279-294
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2010.20..279
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature

Terence McSweeney ¹

¹University of Essex

ABSTRACT

This article examines Bong Joon-ho’s science fiction/horror film, The Host (2006) and interrogates its depiction of a contemporary South Korean family in crisis. The writer considers the film as a resonant cultural artefact and a manifestation of particularly new-millennial anxieties concerned with the continued involvement of the United States in South Korean affairs, fears of an erosion of traditional family values and mistrust of officious, state endorsed bureaucracy. The Host emerges as a profoundly visceral depiction of an ordinary family set against everyone with no one to turn to except each other.
KEYWORDS

horror, science fiction, representation, monster, South Korea, United States, Imperialism, identity
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KCI Citation (1)

KJC Korea
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