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The Asian monster movie comes screeching and stomping into the 21st century with this entertaining, culturally loaded popcorn thriller from South Korea. Bubbling through it is a deep resentment of American hubris: years after a complacent U.S. Army surgeon (Scott Wilson) orders poison dumped into the Han River, a giant sea beast comes raging ashore in Seoul, leaving in its wake a virus the U.S. wants to combat with a secret chemical weapon called agent yellow. Director Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder) tempers all this international paranoia with an endearingly offbeat family story about a shiftless merchant (Tsong Gang-ho) who springs into action after his daughter's dragged off by the monster. The mix of dark humor, creeping suspense, and a sort of apocalyptic tenderness makes this the best horror flick in years. In English and subtitled Korean. R, 118 min. a Century 12 and CineArts 6, Crown Village 18, Landmark's Century Centre, River East 21. --J.R. Jones
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