Is Korea’s latest blockbuster film a shameless copy of a Japanese anime?
“The Host”, a Korean horror/suspense film about a mutant monster created by waste dumped by American soldiers, came to Japanese theaters last week. It has been panned on many Korea blogs for it’s blantant anti-Americanism, but it seems to be doing somewhat well in the box office here (it opened at number 7, but it will probably rise on the charts: opening weekends aren’t usually the biggest earning period for movies in Japan). Some people might immediately label such a film as a typical creation of Anti-American South Koreans. However, the plot line might not be a Korean creation after all. Hoga News has been reporting that Japanese netizens are accusing “The Host” of being a blantant rip off of a monster storyline contained in the 2002 Japanese anime film “WXIII Patlabor”.
Here’s a translation of the issues Japanese netizens have, from Hoga News’ original post:
Waste No. 13 (Patlabor’s monster)
1. A secret biochemical weapon made by the US military escaped to become the monster
2. Anti-US message is included
3. Some battles take place in sewers
4. After all, the monster gets burned to death
Gwoemul (The Host)
1. A biochemical waste of the US military caused the birth of the moster
2. Anti-US message is included
3. Some battles take place in sewers
4. After all, the monster gets burned to death
Interesting, so the plot is very similar. Let’s look at some pictures of the monsters. In the concept sketches, the 1995 monster is from “Patlabor” and the 2004 monster is from “The Host” (images taken from the enjoy Korea post by a Japanese netizen):
Hoga News reports that the Korean media has taken the stance that while the monsters are similar, there was no copying of the Japanese monster. The fact that the Japanese have made so many monster movies over the years has made it pretty much impossible not to create a monster with a similar-looking Japanese version (with a similar origin, similar plotline and similar anti-American tone, right?). The production studio behind “The Host” has dismissed the accusations as an anti-Korean slur.
It’s pretty hard for me to look at these images and plot descriptions without seeing this as a case of copying. Surely coincidences do happen, but this would have to be a huge one.
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Man, didn’t you know that Japan copies everything off Korea? Obviously the creators of the Patlabor monster went forward in time and copied the Host monster. Japanese are sneaky like that didn’t you know. You can’t trust anything they say including apologies and you can’t trust any of their actions like giving Korea millions and millions dollars. They don’t really mean it you see, they’re not honest. Mark my words they will build the bomb and hit South Korea with it for no apparant strategic reason. You just can’t trust them.
I wonder how you say “pakuri” in hangul?
South Korea always mimics Japan.
It’s too bad the two movies are actually nothing alike.
The Host isnt a blatant anti-American movie, they just needed an excuse to get the chemicals into the river. Its not like battle royale 2 where its so anti-American it glorifies terrorism.
Yeah, so you DO know that the BR movies are supposed to be satirizing the things that you say they supposedly “glorify”, right? They’re both decrying the things they go out of their way to emphasize.
The Host has a meaning, the chemical dumpings really did happen in Korea by the US Military.
Seriously James, your starting to ruin you and Japan Probes image by making other countries look bad.
Shame on you for promoting hate.