Make no bones about it: I didn’t even know this film was a thing till about one day before watching it. I was in New York City for a brief work assignment before my bag was packed for my long stay in South Korea and India, a journey that I was going to undertake for about 14 months, and I was determined to enjoy my last visit to the city.
When I saw the move to another continent, I tried to enjoy using my AMC subscription as much as I could the airline carrier simply wouldn’t have done it! For those who do not know, AMC is a chain of movie theatres based in the United States and I have been subscribed to them for quite some time.
After settling in New York City, my first order of business was to determine which films were being screened at which locations in Manhattan. Every time I go to New York, I try to catch some Asian movies that are either difficult or impossible to find back home, since temples that honor the culture seem to have a penchant for placing them in the Times Square cinema.
The very next film on the list was Exhuma. The alluring names of Kim Go-eun and Choi Min-sik won my attention. I didn’t bother asking for what the film was about nor the story actually is. It caught my eye enough to get a ticket for Sunday night. One ironic thing is that 75% of the diapason audience were visitors from Korea, and the rest were tourists – people like me, who were ‘waegukin’ or ‘foreigners’ in Korean.
A widely respected Korean shaman by the name of Hwa-rim is seen in the film at the beginning of the story, who is invited by an American Korean family to come to America, and more specifically, California.
She takes her pupil Bong-gil along, and they understand what they have stepped into. The family’s recently born son is afflicted by the Grave’s Call, meaning that a long-lost ancestor has risen and is now a threat.
The family’s head suggests that the two of them try to ascertain where the grave is so that it may be moved, thus allowing the ancestor to be free. They are willing to do so but only if the cost is right. Hwa-rim, in this case, knows how to get in touch with two of her coworkers in Korea: Kim Sang-deok, the feng shui master, and mortician Yong-geun.
Sang-deok appears confused by the entire scenario but after meeting with the patriarch and his odd feelings about the whole situation and how it seems. One of the things that importantly the patriarch brought attention to was cremating this grave which is something that eludes him so he wants to flee. Hwa-rim manages to attempt to convince him by making him believe that she would be casting a spell while the grave is being excavated.
The patriarch then mentions a monk who instructed him on where to find the grave – as it happens to be located on a mountainside near the border with North Korea. The team, along with a large crew and the family, makes their way to the grave.
Hwa-rim and Bong-gil commence their ritual, which is interesting to watch on the screen and the excavation proceeds successively.
But, at the very last moment, the interruption of one of the diggers cuts off the head of the snake with a human head on it. Hwa-rim can feel the bad energy from that which it is then torrents. Yong-Geun takes the coffin to the hearse and is about to put it into the hospital for some time since it does not look auspicious to set fire to the coffin when it is pouring.
But when he goes out to grab a bite, the janitor pries open the casket and releases the spirit locked inside to go and destroy all of its descendants. First, he exterminates the head of the family to his entire family, and then the patriarch himself. To put an end to the marauder who has gone out to kill the child in the city of Los Angeles, Sang-deok sets the coffin on fire, giving him a torturous existence in life after death.
Some time passes, but then Yong-Geun tells Sang-deok the gravedigger who removed the head of the snake is sick and bleeding from the eyes and nose. They make their way back to the grave only to see the snake’s head with a human face and learn that a double death took place here. The casket which is nearby is approximately seven feet high and then they take it out.
They bring it with them to a nearby temple for the night but in the course of the night Bong-gil wakes up and sees a large beast devouring the other people and pigs. He alerts Hwa-rim about the same but they are caught off guard by the man-eating entity and Bong-gil is wounded and taken over. Hwa-rim lives when the samurai ghoul turns into a fireball and flies out to the mountain since the battle used up too much strength.
The battalion escorts Bongo-gil to a medical facility whereby Hwa-rim is now free to commence doing her studies since Bong-gil is now taken over.
She understand that samurai has been left in the location after a battle hundreds of years ago. Sang-deok returns to the grave and thinks that the tomb raiders she had previously heard about are actually Koreans who were fighting for their country.
They want to trace the samurai rule in Korea. Everyone meets up with an idea to trace the pole that secures the ghoul to this place and they go to the mountain. At midnight, the ghoul gets animated and Hwa-rim decides to use diversion tactics.
When she fails, even with her grandmother’s support, Sang-deok and Yong-geun reach under the ground searching for the pole, which to their dismay, is missing. Sang-deok then recalls the sign that the pole must be in the body of the ghoul, and with his master over the elements, he brings it down.
He almost loses his life but the others get to him in time. To conclude with the story, the movie ends as Bong-gil and Sang-deok are both healed and the family members go to his daughter`s marriage.
General Thoughts:
Firstly, I would like to say that I actually liked the film more than I intended to at the very start. Its movie might have a more convoluted storyline because the plot may be easier to grasp for some, and more difficult for others, but for someone as absorbed in Korean culture and mythology as I am, it was excellent.
For instance, when Hwa-rim carries out the ceremonial activity with Bong-gil, it immerses me since, in a way, it’s like a pansori taking place on screen. I love both pansori and Korean and so I was enjoying myself so much.
The movie contains some violent images which made the girl who was sitting beside me a bit scared however, personally I was not too traumatized by the horror aspects of this. It was quite mild, I would say. The actors were also quite good in their performances.
All in all, if you are willing and are able to get your hands on this, then just find it and watch it! I believe that it is absolutely worth it.
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