Spunky young Hyun-Seo (Ah-sung Ko) is stolen away by the creature when her family's riverside fast-food stand gets trampled underfoot. Stashed away in the creature's sewer lair for later snacking, the sprightly schoolgirl tries all manner of hair-raising escape attempts, to little avail. Meanwhile her thick-witted dad Gang-Du (Kang-ho Song) tries pulling together their feuding family for an ill-fated rescue effort. Regretful, recovering alcoholic grandpa Hiebong (Hie-bong Byeon) marshals what's left of their meager resources, enlisting resentful overachiever Nam-il (Hae-il Park) and cousin Nam-Joo (Du-na Bae), who just so happens to be a professional archer with anxiety issues. But before they can find Hyun-Seo, the family must first escape their government's hilarious quarantine efforts.

[Bong Joon-Ho] s last film, the too-little-seen Memories of Murder, was a slightly bent police procedural that in many ways now seems an eerie precursor to David Fincher's Zodiac. He's got a weird knack for abrupt tonal shifts, and his cast here expertly navigates some hairpin emotional curves. It's suggested that Kang-ho Song's hapless Gang-Du might be retarded, and one of the movie's slyest gags is that the character doesn't act all that differently after being lobotomized. But my favorite is Du-na Bae's anxious archer. Star of the effervescent Japanese festival favorite Linda Linda Linda, this deadpan dynamo has such a naturally hilarious presence-scoring belly laughs while remaining completely still. Jim Jarmusch needs to write her a leading role, stat.

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