Exhuma is a supernatural horror movie from South Korea by director Jang Jae-hyun and starring one of the country's greatest actors ever with versatile Choi Min-sik. In a globalized world, I was more than happy to enjoy this film at the cinema of my neighbouring city. To my negative surprise, I was the only spectator who wasn't Korean in the audience. People finally need to understand that there is a wonderful cinematic world to discover out of Hollywood. Make sure to spread the word about this very good horror film.
This movie revolves around two shamans, a mortician and a Feng Shui master who are hired to lift the curse from a prosperous family of Korean emigrants by relocating the grave of their ancestor. However, things start completely spiralling out of control when this relocation occurs. Something far more sinister than the buried body of an ancestor is hidden on the gloomy hill next to the North Korean border.
Exhuma convinces on several levels. First of all, the story comes around with a few interesting shifts and turns that will keep the audience entertained throughout. The movie's ominous atmosphere is gripping from start to finish. The acting performances are overall very good as we get to witness a particularly balanced cast. The movie's final third gets quite intense and some of the viewers at the cinema were particularly scared. Light and sound techniques increase this intensity even further. The camera work is precise and focused and the special visual effects aren't overused and work particularly well.
However, this movie also has a few minor flaws. The excellent actors and actresses aren't given a script in which they can really show their immense talents. This film focuses too much on its sinister story rather than its promising characters. While some viewers at the cinema were actually scared, I didn't find the film terrifying at all as a horror movie enthusiast. The atmosphere is tense but there isn't one particularly scary scene that has stayed on my mind.
An important issue that deserves its own paragraph is the presence of racism in this film. I'm very familiar with Korean culture and cinema, have been following Korean movies closely for about two decades and have read several books on this subject as well, so people who might tell me that I don't understand some of the remarks or that I'm exaggerating things are wrong. Those are usually the kind of remarks that you get when criticizing Korean cinema. Believe me when I tell you that I think that Korean cinema has been the greatest in the world for the past two decades and that in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases I only have favourable things to say. This is why it's important to criticize things when they really matter as is the case here. Two elements have left a bitter taste in this film. First of all, the daughter of the Feng Shui master is studying in Germany and dating a local man. Instead of caring how this man treats his daughter, the only thing the master is worried about is that their children might have blue eyes. Besides the fact that blue eyes are truly beautiful, reducing future family members to one small physical detail is stereotypical racism at its worst. Another even worse element worth to be pointed out is the movie's particularly negative portrayal of Japanese culture. I'm aware that Japan has occupied Korea and committed atrocious crimes in the past but one has to eventually get over this and realize that such things happened eighty years ago when none of the characters in the movie was even alive. The film starts with a scene where a polite stewardess shyly speaks Japanese to one of the characters who rebuffs her aggressively by telling her proudly that she is Korean. Such exaggerated anger in relation to an innocent mistake seems excessive to me. That film also discusses and portrays some of the horrors the Japanese have committed in the past but these elements don't add anything to expand the depth of the plot. Such negative remarks just feel gratuitous, old-fashioned and resentful. Furthermore, the film's antagonist also turns out to be Japanese which is analyzed, discussed and shown on numerous occasions. This film attempts to show that the Korean shamans, mortician and master are courageous, determined and idealistic while the Japanese and their collaborators from the past are inherently evil. Such drastic decisions almost give this film the style of an obsolete propaganda film that might as well come from North Korea. Let me tell you that contemporary Japanese horror movies on the other side don't attempt to make any foreign ethnicities look dreadful. There are no evil buried American generals haunting poor Japanese babies. That is however exactly what you get in this film with a Japanese warrior tormenting Korean families for centuries. This movie would have been so much better if it had simply focused on an evil Korean warlord of the past as an antagonist rather than strategically dishonouring Japanese culture, history and people. The scriptwriters deserve nothing but shame for such an excessive portrayal of racism and don't even try to justify the unjustifiable.
Aside of that major flaw that deserves to be addressed, analyzed and discussed, Exhuma, originally known as Pamyo, is nonetheless an atmospheric, entertaining and intense supernatural horror movie that deserves more attention, recognition and respect. If you like this particular movie, make sure to watch other South Korean films with similar vibes that are executed even better such as The Wailing, I Saw the Devil and Memories of Murder. The underestimated recently released The Ghost Station that actually honours Japanese horror cinema also deserves your attention.
This movie revolves around two shamans, a mortician and a Feng Shui master who are hired to lift the curse from a prosperous family of Korean emigrants by relocating the grave of their ancestor. However, things start completely spiralling out of control when this relocation occurs. Something far more sinister than the buried body of an ancestor is hidden on the gloomy hill next to the North Korean border.
Exhuma convinces on several levels. First of all, the story comes around with a few interesting shifts and turns that will keep the audience entertained throughout. The movie's ominous atmosphere is gripping from start to finish. The acting performances are overall very good as we get to witness a particularly balanced cast. The movie's final third gets quite intense and some of the viewers at the cinema were particularly scared. Light and sound techniques increase this intensity even further. The camera work is precise and focused and the special visual effects aren't overused and work particularly well.
However, this movie also has a few minor flaws. The excellent actors and actresses aren't given a script in which they can really show their immense talents. This film focuses too much on its sinister story rather than its promising characters. While some viewers at the cinema were actually scared, I didn't find the film terrifying at all as a horror movie enthusiast. The atmosphere is tense but there isn't one particularly scary scene that has stayed on my mind.
An important issue that deserves its own paragraph is the presence of racism in this film. I'm very familiar with Korean culture and cinema, have been following Korean movies closely for about two decades and have read several books on this subject as well, so people who might tell me that I don't understand some of the remarks or that I'm exaggerating things are wrong. Those are usually the kind of remarks that you get when criticizing Korean cinema. Believe me when I tell you that I think that Korean cinema has been the greatest in the world for the past two decades and that in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases I only have favourable things to say. This is why it's important to criticize things when they really matter as is the case here. Two elements have left a bitter taste in this film. First of all, the daughter of the Feng Shui master is studying in Germany and dating a local man. Instead of caring how this man treats his daughter, the only thing the master is worried about is that their children might have blue eyes. Besides the fact that blue eyes are truly beautiful, reducing future family members to one small physical detail is stereotypical racism at its worst. Another even worse element worth to be pointed out is the movie's particularly negative portrayal of Japanese culture. I'm aware that Japan has occupied Korea and committed atrocious crimes in the past but one has to eventually get over this and realize that such things happened eighty years ago when none of the characters in the movie was even alive. The film starts with a scene where a polite stewardess shyly speaks Japanese to one of the characters who rebuffs her aggressively by telling her proudly that she is Korean. Such exaggerated anger in relation to an innocent mistake seems excessive to me. That film also discusses and portrays some of the horrors the Japanese have committed in the past but these elements don't add anything to expand the depth of the plot. Such negative remarks just feel gratuitous, old-fashioned and resentful. Furthermore, the film's antagonist also turns out to be Japanese which is analyzed, discussed and shown on numerous occasions. This film attempts to show that the Korean shamans, mortician and master are courageous, determined and idealistic while the Japanese and their collaborators from the past are inherently evil. Such drastic decisions almost give this film the style of an obsolete propaganda film that might as well come from North Korea. Let me tell you that contemporary Japanese horror movies on the other side don't attempt to make any foreign ethnicities look dreadful. There are no evil buried American generals haunting poor Japanese babies. That is however exactly what you get in this film with a Japanese warrior tormenting Korean families for centuries. This movie would have been so much better if it had simply focused on an evil Korean warlord of the past as an antagonist rather than strategically dishonouring Japanese culture, history and people. The scriptwriters deserve nothing but shame for such an excessive portrayal of racism and don't even try to justify the unjustifiable.
Aside of that major flaw that deserves to be addressed, analyzed and discussed, Exhuma, originally known as Pamyo, is nonetheless an atmospheric, entertaining and intense supernatural horror movie that deserves more attention, recognition and respect. If you like this particular movie, make sure to watch other South Korean films with similar vibes that are executed even better such as The Wailing, I Saw the Devil and Memories of Murder. The underestimated recently released The Ghost Station that actually honours Japanese horror cinema also deserves your attention.