I missed this post about this movie over at Marmot's Hole.

It is about the horror movie The Host which is out now. I usually just skim over the titles of blog posts, and I don't read about Korean movies or music or stuff. I usually read the ones about politics and geopolitics.

But, I came to that post when I read this one at Lost Nomad's.

It turns out - which again is news to me - that the monster in the movie was created - kind of like Godzilla - by US Forces Korea.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with the movie comes in the very first scene. The film begins at a laboratory on the Yongsan Army Base, as a nasty American officer orders his Korean underling to dump a huge load of chemicals down the drain. The powerless underling tries to object, but buckles under pressure and pours out the chemicals.

It is, frankly, a cliché and stupid scene, with stilted English and goofy non-logic. The tone is greatly out of sync with the rest of the story, too.

I'm almost speechless.

The author of the review at Marmot's doesn't think it should be something to get upset about:

However, it is a brief scene, and I think you would have to be hypersensitive to let it ruin the movie for you. As the Metropolitician points out in his review, Bong Joon-ho makes a lot of jabs at many aspects of Korean society, and most of those jabs are a lot harder than what the USFK receives (not to mention more accurate).

Well, if that were the only tid bit out in Korean society convincing it USFK has been a horrible cancer destroying Korea's environment for 50 years, maybe I would shrug it off. But, if you have listened to Korea society since 2000 - after the society flip-flopped in its attitude toward NK when the NK-SK Summit came and went, you would find that this scene is just one powerful message in a mountain full of messages.

I've linked to this stuff before, but take a look at it. Remember it. Then think about this little scene in a popular horror movie that says the US created that horror.

Here is the MacFarland 2000 case that the movie specifically refers to. It was a case where 20 gallons of fromaldehyde were dumped into the base sewer system - and that all was processed 3 or more times before it touched the Han.

Here is a Korea Times editorial about a story that didn't make it into the press much -- it is about Korean lumber companies dumping 271 TONs of the same substance directly into the Han!!

271 tons ---- if you look at the 2000 Water Dump case I wrote up, and you see how completely batshit Korean society went over the 20 gallons, you would expect the society would have hung the lumber company people up in the street or burned them at the stake or impaled them - something.

You would expect the news would have been filled for 10X 20X 10,000X as many weeks and months with nasty, heated editorials and "news" stories as the 20 gallons by USFK were (and the USFK case was hot news for 4 to 6 months and was referred to in the news off and on until 2004 or 2005).

You would also expect if they were going to make a movie about a monster created by fromalin, they would pick the case where 271 tons of it were dumped directly into the Han - rather than 20 gallons that went through 3 or 4 treatment facilities.

I don't think we should dismiss this.

That "one scene" is a symptom of a huge bleeping disease. There are pop culture items like this all the time. And they go into building what I refer to all the time as "the well of hate" or "well of ill-will". And that this well of bad blood is what causes the explosions that come every 8 to 14 months or so - with the huge ones most recently having come in 2002, 2000, 1998, and 1995.

And you can see from this movie how what I call The Process includes not just the radical, dedicated anti-US groups, but also elements of pop culture, elements of the government, education, and the media, and more. - The whole of the society.

And small things like the scene in this movie make a difference. That is why I keep pointing out how the Korean media clearly refuses to name Korea's big business as a source of pollution.

When Korean society year after year --- only hears about "big cases" that involve USFK, and they hear again and again how the air and water and soil is so highly polluted and dangerous, and the names of Korean big businesses who do most of the polluting are surgically removed from stories about pollution --- who do you think it is "natural" for Koreans to blame?

Obviously ----- the monster that is destorying Korea is America's fault.

It is simply accepted as a given, because that is the message they get from all over the society.

I really need to step up my look into the Korean language television broadcasts at KBS and MBC on their pollution coverage.

This movie is coming at a time when the nation is getting even more peppered with stories about Uncle Pollutor due to the LPP base handovers. And it is also equally clear Uri Party is going to try to regain favor among voters and the society by attacking the environmental issue. In short, this issue is going to grow much louder than its quiet roar month after month, year to year.

With the presidential election coming next year, we could see a repeat of the Environmental Maddess of 2000.

And also go back and look at this review I did on newspaper coverage (English versions) of the press and how lopsided the focus on USFK as the primary pollutor of Korea has been.

And lastly, I'll repeat: if there is anybody with good Korean language skills that would like to help out by taking a look at some links I have to short 1 to 2 minute news clips, I could sure use it.

email me at usinkorea@hotmail.com

That is too funny! I love this:

They have their very own Toxic Avenger!

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The moster has been spotted taking a dip into the river.

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