Hee-bong and his son Kang-du manage a kiosk on the side of Han River. Kang-du, whose lazy and incompetent wife has deserted him, has a middle-school student daughter: Hyun-seo. One day, a fish that has mutated into a giant monster, kills countless people and kidnaps Hyun-seo. Though the police think that she`s dead, Kang-du receives a call for help from Hyun-seo. Along with his father, his former student activist and now unemployed younger brother, and his younger sister ? who`s also an archer ? he heads out to rescue her. Even though the film belongs to the monster movie genre, as was the case with his previous work [Memories of Murder], Bong Joon-ho manages to bring in issues of political economy. Part of the plot, which figures the monster as a by-product of poison poured into the Han River by the U.S. military, makes one think that the film is anti-American. But the analysis in this film is much more complicated. With the collapse of the socio-political system, the disinterest and depoliticization of the general population, and the powerlessness of the progressive student-led civil society movement, the job of stopping the monster falls into the hands of one poor family and a united group of shabby citizens. A cool-eyed satire that cleverly conveys a sharp political message, without missing the beat ? or the fun -- of a monster movie. (Huh Moon-yung)