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The Host (2006)
The Host (2006) poster

The Host (2006)

괴물

Horror, Drama, Science Fiction • 1h 59m

Director: Bong Joon Ho

Artificial Eye Blu-ray?

Video format

UHD Blu-ray

Best English-friendly release · updated 1 year ago

Overview

A teenage girl is captured by a giant mutated squid-like creature that appears from Seoul's Han River after toxic waste was dumped in it, prompting her family into a frantic search for her.

Release details

Best Video Release

France 4K Blu-ray

DNR-affected, low-res original 2K DI upscaled but strong compression and Atmos

TSPDT
2026: #980
2025: #986
2024: #988
2023: #988
2022: #988
Length
119 mins
Type
Movie

More from Bong Joon Ho

See more →

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray has the least DNR (UK Artificial Eye might be similar? Both better than Universal 4K Blu-ray)

Criterion even though doesn’t have 4K, it has the B&W version and a lot of extras.

Director: Bong Joon Ho

Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Director: Bong Joon Ho

Best English-Friendly:

US/UK Blu-ray

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Curzon/Artificial Eye UK 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Korea disc is near-identical, caps

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

More from Artificial Eye

See more →

Director: Gaspar Noé

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Artificial Eye 3D Blu-ray

Director: Roy Andersson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Curzon/Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

4k transfer. Shochiku Blu-ray is similar

Director: Céline Sciamma

Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye UK Blu-ray?

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release

Best Video:

Pyramide France Blu-ray

Streaming in 4K on Netflix

Video Notes:

Supposed to have better translation than Criterion.

Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly:

2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.


Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible.

The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.

Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration

Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:

With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.

Director: Claire Denis

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Additional Info:

US IFC Films Blu-ray features exclusive commentary and video essay.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Best English-Friendly:

Theatrical Cut: UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

2023 "Director's" Cut: Unreleased

Passion According to Andrei Cut: MosFilm Youtube Stream

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Theatrical Cut: Netherlands Lumière Blu-ray has best encoding

2023 "Director's" Cut: Unreleased

Passion According to Andrei Cut: MosFilm Youtube Stream

Video Notes:

Theatrical Cut: UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray > Criterion

Passion According to Andrei Cut: MosFilm Youtube Stream > Criterion Blu-ray

Passion According to Andrei Cut: MosFilm Youtube Stream > Criterion Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Theatrical Cut: 2011/2018 RU Blu-ray

Passion According to Andrei Cut: ??

Director: Robert Bresson

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Artificial Eye vs France Carlotta no comparison

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye UK Blu-ray

More Horror on Blu-ray

Director: Lewis Teague

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

> disappointing US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray / R1 Lionsgate DVD sounds best and has the original mono and the R1 Lionsgate DVD has a Dolby Stereo remix

Director: Alexandre Aja

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

US Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

US Lionsgate Limited, France ESC, or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray?

Video Notes:

Germany Plaion is reportedly better than UK Second Sight.

Not sure about the US Lionsgate or France ESC.

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Best English-Friendly:

Theatrical Cut: Austria NSM Blu-ray
Director's Cut: US Lionsgate Blu-ray

Best Video:

Theatrical Cut: Austria NSM Blu-ray
Director's Cut: France Metropolitan Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Metropolitan got better picture (higher bitrate + better grain + more detail) than Lionsgate

Best Audio:

Director's Cut: US Lionsgate Blu-ray

Director: Glen Morgan

Best English-Friendly:

2008 Canada TVA Films Blu-ray

Best Video:

2022 Germany Nameless Media 3-Disc Edition Blu-ray

Directors: Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK MoC Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

MoC Blu-ray offers both restored and an unrestored tracks

Director: George Pavlou

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Germany Wicked Vision 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray teased

Video Notes:

Germany Wicked Vision 4K Blu-ray better than US Kino Lorber?

Director: Roman Polanski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.

Lionsgate and the upcoming Imprint have the same discs.

Best Audio:

Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD.  This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track.  FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.

Director: F. W. Murnau

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score

Additional Info:

Both Eureka and BFI Blu-rays are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC Blu-ray is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made Blu-rays of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber Blu-ray!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray remains one of the worst Blu-rays of all time for this reason.

Director: Andy Muschietti

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Director: Mark Pellington

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

88 Films is FiM encoded

Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling

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· last reviewed 1 year ago

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