One of the kicks of Netflix is having movies arrive that you, nor anyone in the household, can remember ordering. Such was the case of The Host, a Korean monster flick.

The monster genre is just not our thing, so how did it make it into our queue? The critics. It got such raves I put it on the list.

So we watched. It begins in a lab or morgue where an American boss forces his Korean employee to pour bottles of formaldehyde down the drain because they are dusty. Yes, dust on the bottles. The Korean objects, noting that doing so is illegal and would put pollutants in the Han River. But the American bellows, “That’s an order.” Thus is spawned a mutant creature that wreaks havoc for the next two hours or so.

The movie was dubbed, and badly, so it plays more like an episode from Mystery Science Theater. It definitely entertains. But why was this such a darling for the critics? Hard to say. Reading the New York Times review, this statement jumped out:

The creature running amok in “The Host,” meanwhile, was spawned by a 37-year-old South Korean who has spent his entire life in the shadow of the American military presence. No wonder the bad guys look like character actors on leave from Hollywood. They are.

So the director grew up in the “shadow” of the American military, eh?

Why not say he grew up in the shadow of North Korea, where millions starved to death and remain prisoners of their totalitarian government?

Why not cite a true life monster flick, one with two monsters. The first monster is Kim Jon Il, a movie buff, and the tyrant running the crummy commie country. He wanted to produce movies but could not find local talent. So:

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has a passion for cinema. But he could never find a director to realise his vision. So he kidnapped one from the South, jailed him and fed him grass, then forced him to shoot a socialist Godzilla. Now, for the first time, Shin Sang-ok tells the full story of his bizarre dealings with - and eventual flight from - the world’s most dangerous dictator.

In The Host, I saw no digs at the twerp from the north. Just swipes at the USA, which has spent 50+ years keeping South Korea free. In the South, they eat kimchi, not grass. In exchange, we buy their Hundais and their Samsungs.

Such a shadow we cast.