The premise for the story is simple, and standard enough – apart from the fact that it seems to be based on a real incident (one that didn’t have the same consequences, of course). Contaminated formaldehyde is dumped into Korea’s Han River by doctors at a morgue run by the US Army. This causes a fish in the river to mutate into a gigantic, man-eating beastie that terrorizes the townsfolk in true Asiatic mutant-monster fashion.

But instead of serving as the set-up for cheesy special effects showdowns or ponderous symbolic epic storytelling, this premise allows us to watch as a group of true everymen – a squabbling, semi-functional and very average family – rise up to the challenge posed by this terrible situation, and somehow try and find a way to face the monster and rescue the youngest member of their family, a little girl called Hyun-Seo from the monster’s clutches. We are not given a simple archetypal ‘common person doing their best’, like in Spielberg’s ridiculous movie, however. Hyun-Seo’s father might be brave, and ultimately heroic, but he’s also a bit of a klutz. The rest of his family isn’t much better – the archery champion who takes too long to make a shot, the college graduate who can’t get a job, and their father, who does his best but has made mistakes in the past. They’re very ordinary people, for real, and not just in the idealized way in which ordinary people are extraordinarily good looking, capable and noble in Hollywood movies.

So, there’s a lot of confusion, bickering and nobility along the way, just like there is when any real family tries to do anything as a group. In addition, the monster isn’t the only villain of the piece. The US Army and the Korean government turn out to be just as adversarial to the family’s quest, in a note of real-life commentary that rings very true.

Still, the movie isn’t all about taking jibes at US meddling or Korean bureaucracy – it’s a monster yarn, and a dead good one. Some of the more farcical moments of humour are a bit hit and miss, but the pacing of this movie is great. I was also impressed by the visual aspect. The scenes where the monster is menacing great crowds of people are especially memorable and effective. Instead of resorting to standard wide-angle cinematic scares, the cameras focus more on the people running in terror, the sense of disorientation and fear, and convey that oddly quiet, desperate feeling at the heart of panic incredibly well. There are other scares in this movie as there should be in any monster flick, and they’re mostly handled as well, and very tastefully.

There are a few places here and there where the plot seems a bit questionable, and there are those supremely ill-timed light-relief moments, but the ending is great, as well, and perfectly in keeping with the rest of the movie. Ultimately, this seems to be a movie about how ordinary people are flawed and flakey but have to muddle along the best they can because the authorities certainly aren’t going to help them. That’s a sentiment I can heartily endorse, and this is a move that is way ahead of anything in the monster way that Hollywood has put out in a while.

Year Of Release: 2006

Language: Korean with English Subtitles.