The Host

There's a line in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead that says something to the effect of "audiences know what to expect. And that's all they're prepared to believe." That pretty much sums up why I loved this movie.

We know what to expect. We know that when the basketball star misses the final shot at the beginning of the film that he is about to embark on a journey of self discovery which will inevitably end with him making the shot in the end, and winning the big game. No surprises there.

Some screenwriters put in terms of an ending being inevitable, yet surprising. No matter how undeserving or inappropriate their desires we must have each character get what they want in the end. Because we Americans? We love the underdog to win. We NEED the underdog to win.

The Han river is invested with a giant formaldehyde-created sea creature, and when a dad sees his daughter eaten by the creature the family falls into bickering and blaming in their despair. But when the dad gets a crackly phone call from his daughter the next night, the family pulls together to plunder through the quarantined city to find the little girl.

What's so baffling and amazing about this movie is the way Joon-ho Bong manages to find that perfect balance of inevitable and surprising. Pretty much nothing happens the way I expected and yet, it was a very fulfilling experience. I was so aghast by the artful nature of the ending that I realized I was willing to give up some pieces of a cohesive story and enjoy the ambiguity of the situation.

Technically this is a monster movie, but the monster is a side note (and somewhat laughable) to the exploration of one families dynamic. It's a scary movie, but it's not scary. And for me to say that it must mean something. There are cringe-worthy moments, and moments so intense that I practically smothered myself with a pillow in anticipation. But overall the film is so beautiful it's difficult to remember anything else. Be sure to watch it in Korean with English subtitles because the performances of the Korean cast are essential to the experience.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The first time I saw this it was as a play in Bath. What's that? Yes, that would be in a foreign country. I remember thinking, "wow, that was really good. Entertaining, fun, and smart." The End. I didn't think much else about it.

Then I took a Shakespeare class which whetted my passion for everything Shakespeare. Naturally I couldn't pass up this gem, especially considering I'd already put in my requisite time with Lawrence Olivier and Kenneth Branaugh. I decided that this was the time for some Gary Oldman.

The story follows the narrative of Hamlet, but from the perspective of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's oldest friends who get caught up in the action and inadvertently betray him. The running joke in Hamlet is that no one can seem to tell them apart, they are constantly correcting themselves but without any guidance from Rosencrantz or Guildenstern.

In this retelling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern know nothing more than the information presented in Hamlet. They are as characters brought to life, having no knowledge beyond their own role in the story. They know they're going to Elsinore, but why? They were requested. They hear Hamlet is their oldest friend and thus fulfill their role for the simple reason that they don't know what else to do. In the context of Hamlet, this not only explains the confusion surrounding their identities (they don't even know which is which) but also makes sense of the way the two friends become pawns of everyone they encounter.

As the two men make their way through the narrative they constantly take the opportunity to stop, and question the metaphysical psychology of their situation. In one particularly funny scene they physically act out a match of "questions" on a tennis court, switching sides for service, and artfully shifting between and game and a natural inquisition.

One famous aspect of Shakespeare's Hamlet is the use of a play within a play to seek out the guilt of Hamlet's uncle Claudius. Naturally, this retelling uses the same technique to foreshadow the fate of the pair, and it could even be argued that we are seeing a play within a play within a play within a play. And that's exactly what makes the film so much fun.

While there are numerous revealing allusions to Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are an equal number of independently amusing moments that will appeal to all audiences. Whether they are Shakespeare scholars or merely fans of clever puns and witty banter.