Genre: Drama
Starring: Ji-hwan Kang, Jae-rok Kim, Seong-su Kim
Release year: 2006
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
SYNOPSIS:
Seoul, winter. Ho-jun, a recently divorced, part-time film-studies lecturer, moves to a small and shabby one-room flat. Having left his only son Gun with his ex-wife, Ho-jun lives a cheerless and destitute life. His negative and cynical attitude and his miserable situation drive him into a desperate depression.
RATING: ?/10
USER RATING:
REVIEW:
" Host & Guest begins with unwanted solicitation after unwanted solicitation. A mobile phone call turns out to be a sex line. A newspaper one has not subscribed to keeps showing up at the door. And at that same door, someone appears with "Good News" that for many isn't much good. Ho-jun (Kim Jae-rok, who until now has had small roles in films such as Christmas In August and A Hot Roof) is the owner of this door. Well, he may not be the owner, just the renter, because things aren't going well for Ho-jun. He's a divorced father with a little boy, he's out-of work as a film professor, and he's never made a film. He's also quite irascible, so it's compelling that he'd meet his opposite, the incredibly understanding Kye-sang (Kang Ji-hwan, who debuted in musical theatre, receiving recognition in Rocky Horror Picture Show in 2002 and as Danny in Grease in 2004 and more recently has appeared in TV dramas such as The Last Dance With Me), a Jehovah's Witness who comes to Ho-jun's door a second time in an improbable scenario to save Ho-jun from being trapped naked in his bathroom, ready to rest him on his bed sprawled out all Christ-complex-y. Both searching for something beyond their human existence, Ho-jun and Kye-sang become forced friends and we witness several moments of Ho-jun's anger at the world, contextualized within an elitism and entitlement that present some nearly Hong-ian discomforting moments. The film evolves into a discussion of family, faith, nationalism, war, and film, each of which I found myself appreciating, even if I'm not able to really say what, if anything, I'm supposed to "get" from this film.
Host & Guest The forced nature of that second meeting is the only major criticism I can make of Host & Guest. Otherwise, the film presents some wonderful images, such as this white aura that resonates from certain characters and window panes at the beginning, and awkward dialogue throughout that carries you across scene after scene. I don't mean that the dialogue is awkward, but that it causes awkward feelings in the characters and, if debut director Shin Dong-il (whose short The Holy Family screened at Cannes a few years back) has done his job fully suturing you with what you witness on screen, the audience as well. It is interesting how these characters keep missing each other yet keep wanting to stay with each other in spite of their ethical differences. It appears Ho-jun has more to learn from Kye-sang, but they receive each other on their own terms nonetheless. Both Kim and Kang put together excellent performances, most poignantly Kye-sang's speech at the end which is wonderfully tempered and poised. Kang and Shin have put together perhaps the most sympathetic portrayal of a Jehovah's Witness without getting too preachy on either side of the congregation.
The context of the film is the recession South Korea was experiencing at the time this film was made. Ho-jun struggles with his masculinity and his entitlements along with his general asocial tendencies that his immersion in film only exacerbates. There's a compelling scene in a multiplex theater that is screening, of all things, an obscure Turkish film, where Ho-jun's attempt to recover from economic wounds only makes him more pathetic. He lambastes the manager for not supporting independent cinema when in fact it is. Hell, the theater he's kicked out of is packed and its packed capacity is partly responsible for getting him kicked out, since he tried to sneak into a better seat other than the one he was assigned. (South Korean movie theaters require you to purchase tickets where you are assigned a specific seat.) Ho-jun is a character who is clearly his own worst enemy.
But he's not the only enemy in this picture. Images of U.S. President-Select George W. Bush make a few appearances and his image is mocked and ridiculed at each moment. Bush II's arrogance and willful ignorance that has caused so much harm and chaos in our world presently is paralleled with South Korea's own brand of conservative nationalism and Christianity that allow cover for things such as a war in Iraq based on false pretenses. Ho-jun is just as willing to deface images of South Korea's nationalism as he is images of Bush II. But, as Ho-jun will learn from Kye-sang, as much as these humiliations from afar provide catharsis for his wounded self and wounded world, they are a far distance from the stands that need to be taken when we are called to the stand. With religious symbolism abounding without getting too didactic, Host & Guest is a film that I'll let in again if it comes knocking on my door a second time. "
Source: KOREANFILM.ORG
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