South Korean Horror Film Explores Religious And National Identity
(REVIEW) For the past five weekends, the horror movie “Exhuma” has topped box offices in South Korea, its country of origin. This movie, which also recently opened in select theaters across North America, is a harrowing must-see.
Two shamans, a funeral director and a geomancer, are the lead cast of characters, all with different backgrounds and views on death. Their work takes them to an unmarked grave at the top of a mountain near the North Korean border, which they must exhume to break a generational curse. Once exhumed, however, things only get progressively more horrifying.
It’s a technical marvel, paced expertly, split into six chapters and building from suspenseful to raw and violent. So many of the shots are nothing less than timeless, calling to mind horror cult classics and solidifying itself among them (though it may already be too popular to be relegated to cult status).
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Narratively, it’s reminiscent of “The Exorcist” — and much scarier. The effects are phenomenal, with monster design I won’t forget for a long time.
But “Exhuma” isn’t a cheap scare. It offers fascinating insight into the complex issue of Korean identity.
Under the grave, buried deep in the dirt, is the body — and spirit — of a Japanese warrior from the 16th century. He’s from the period of the Imjin War, a series of two invasions of Korea by Japanese forces from 1592 to 1598. He’s vicious and violent, meant to guard the grave against anyone who might harm it and defend the spirit of Japan for an eternity.
Characters regularly warn each other with the reminder: “He’s a Japanese demon; he’ll kill anything without a second thought.”
This, too, has basis in reality. During the Imjin War, scorched earth tactics were often used by the Japanese: civilians were killed and raided for food and other supplies.
More recently, Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 and was colonized as part of the Empire of Japan. The period has lasting effects to the modern day — namely, in attitude, a scathing dislike of Japan.
There’s plenty of diversity of thought on the matter, however. Even in “Exhuma,” there’s a great point of contention between those who are pro-Japanese and those who are pro-Korean.
The movie displays a diversity of religion, too, and a positive view regardless. The Christian funeral director prays for their safety against the spirit, and there’s a great reverence displayed toward the practice of the shamans. Even the demon has a deep respect for Buddhism, and Buddhist monuments and scriptures ultimately protect the characters in their battle against evil.
The movie can’t help but bring to mind “The Wailing,” another standout in Korean horror from 2016.
“The Wailing” is all but a biblical allegory — barring one complex twist — that follows a police officer investigating a mysterious illness that begins killing members of his small village once a Japanese stranger moves in. When his daughter contracts this illness, his complex feelings around the case become personal.
Director Na Hong-Jin, a self-professed Christian, said he was inspired to make “The Wailing” after several people close to him died of non-natural causes in a short period of time.
“The question was, ‘Why did they have to be victims of all people?’” he said in an interview. “I already had the answers for the ‘how.’ What I had to find out was the ‘why.’”
He spoke to clergy of various religions and personally researched the practice of folk religions in more remote parts of South Korea — which contributes a great deal to the movie’s unforgettable exorcism scene — but it’s Christianity that plays the largest role.
“I chose religion because I believed that no areas of study or school of philosophy could answer my question mentioned earlier … if I didn’t believe in the God from the Bible to begin with, I would have told this story in an entirely different way,” he said.
More explicit about its support of Christianity, the evil in “The Wailing” includes shamanism, while the forces of good regularly use biblical metaphor to offer healing and redemption.
Both movies present the lasting influence of Japanese colonialism as the ultimate evil, and both reflect a Korea that’s religiously diverse. If “Exhuma” is best at giving a history lesson behind the reason for Koreans’ dislike of Japanese colonialism, “The Wailing” best demonstrates the importance of Christianity in South Korea.
At the start of the 20th century, only 1 percent of Koreans were Christians. Small scale missionary efforts had been made in the decades before, but real success came with the establishment of schools and hospitals in the country, aiding in quests for better learning and healthcare and improving public perception of Christianity. The “Pyongyang Revival” of 1907 proved a driving force for the faith.
Japanese colonialism also played a large role. During the colonization period, Christianity was seen as completely countercultural to Japan — which was a good thing for many Koreans.
Now, for the past two decades, South Korea has been a leading country for sending missionaries around the world. In the early 21st century, they were second — only behind the U.S. — and as of 2018 they were sixth. The capital of Seoul contains many of the largest congregations in the world, and many describe the vibrant faith of Christians in the country; it’s common to wake up as early as 4:30 in the morning to pray and attend church before work.
Still, it’s unclear how long this religious boom will last. South Korea still has no dominant religion, and it’s population of Christians is stagnant — if not shrinking.
South Koreans are also very much in the process of exploring their religious identity, perhaps best exemplified by the diversity and prevalence of folk religion in “Exhuma.” Like in many countries around the world, religiosity has shifted a great deal in South Korea over the past few years.
Jillian Cheney is Religion Unplugged’s Senior Culture Correspondent. She writes about film, TV, music, art, books and more. Find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.