Exhuma is built/based on Korean spiritual mythology specifically about the after-life and spirits. The movie follows four main characters. Hwa-rin and Bong-gil are a master/protege shaman pair who deal with spirits. Kim is a gravemancer, who primarily finds good plots of land based on feng shui and Ko, a christian mortician (I'll refer to them from their last names) who sells them.
Hwa-rin initially gave me the impression that she was a "girl-boss" type character that was quite resolute and confident in herself. Bong-gil, in contrast, was a very quiet character that seemed to follow the protege role quite concretely. He allowed her to speak and aided and supported her in rituals. I initially quite liked Hwa-rin's character, but I was a bit disappointed later on when it seemed like even though she was characterized to be smart and quick-witted, she was always frozen in terror in moments that mattered the most. This is both a pro and con in my book as it gives her depth and allows her to break out of the "girl-boss" stereotype, but it was annoying to see her unable to do anything to help Bong-gil or protect him. Hwa-rin was initially driven by the money incentive and didn't really take into account the ominous signs she was seeing. Later, specifically after seeing the vertical coffin and the lack of money incentives, she's not so keen on joining. This shows that Hwa-rin's fundamentally thinking about the money as she is well established as a shaman. She's not as driven by a selfless desire to "cleanse the land" like Kim is. I really like Bong-gil, who's able to think quick on his feet and who's not as quiet as initially characterized. I really enjoyed Lee Do-hyun's acting when he was possessed and also impressed by his fluency in Japanese.
Kim and Ko were quite an interesting pair to watch. They're business partners but also friends who care for each other. My first impression of Ko was that he was greedy for money, which is true to a certain extent as he did steal jewelry from a coffin. However, I was quite happy when it was revealed that it was not because of Ko that the coffin was unsealed. It helped both establish his understanding of the dangers of the spirits despite his own religious beliefs and the trust between the pair. Ko wouldn't do that to Kim as he understands it would put both of them in danger. Kim initially was a gravemancer that seemed to follow his survival-instinct/gut. He refused to excavate the grave after seeing the ominous energy that was emitting from the plot, but was later convinced when Hwa-rin stated that she didn't need his permission. Throughout that scene, it's extremely clear that Kim is regretting joining them in excavating the grave. Later on, specifically after Park Jin-yong's death, we can see that Kim's mindset has changed significantly. He feels guilt from the deaths caused by the spirit and feels a sort of responsibility for that nameless grave. This causes him to go back to the plot of land and later discover the shogun. In the second half of the movie, Kim is extremely resolute in trying to address the issue, while in contrast, Hwa-rin is now unsure. In a sense, these two have kind of swapped stances although they're fueled by different motivations.
I thought one of the first lines Hwa-rin said was a bit interesting. She stated that "I'm Korean," to a Japanese flight attendant. This both helped establish that 1) she speaks japanese 2) people mistake her for japanese often, and 3) she wanted to make a distinction that she was not Japanese. When watching the movie I was confused as to why she needed to make that specific distinction but as this movie dealt with shoguns from imperial Japan and the war between the two countries, it made sense in the end. This movie kind of taps into Korean nationalism. Although I will say that line was a bit cringy when it did happen.
The first half of the movie lived up to my expectations of the movie. The suspense was built up masterfully and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The first scene with the nameless grave was so ominous I had to look away. The gore in the movie was not too little and not too much, and the combination of spirit possessions and the mix of Japanese and Korean made it unsettling to watch. I also really liked how the audio scape of the first half of this movie. Often times it was almost completely silent except for rustling/the sound of the breeze. I also enjoyed how the film was directed and that the spirits were often blurry/unfocused and although the focus of the scene, always out of focus. It had me squinting sometimes in the movie theatre lol.
The second half of the movie was quite a bit different I would say. Especially after the reveal of the shogun in his entirety, I would say the horror aspect of the film lost a lot of its "horror". It reminded me of the Barbarian, who also suffered from the same thing. I did enjoy the vertical grave scene, which was such a contrast to the previous scene at the grave plot as it was so much more lively with people and rituals. It just reinforced the ominous setting of the grave. Another scene I really liked was the first look at the shogun with Hwa-rin. It had me at the edge of my seat and Kim Go-eun's acting was superb in that scene. I liked the reveal of the reason why the shogun's there as well as the backstory behind the Park family. The visuals of the knife stabbing the penninsula of Korea was quite good. The scene where Hwa-rin was distracting the shogun was clever. I liked the idea that even the Shogun must be cautious of different gods. The scene itself just looked so visually pleasing as well. Aside from that, there were quite a few plot points I didn't like about the second half. The buddhist tattoos, which was the main focus of the movie tattoos were kind of treated as comedic relief in a scene, and later revealed quite quickly to be useless against the shogun. Basically just undermined the significance of those tattoos and it seemed like that entire plot point could be removed without issue. The last scene where Kim defeats the shogun had me completely confused and I don't think it was quite clear that the iron stake was in the shogun itself. Also the fact that the shogun was defeated so easily just based on the four elements- It definitely felt like an easy way out. They kind of built of the shogun to be industructible and it was also stated in the movie that "he couldn't be eliminated."
Overall, I think this movie was quite good. The premise is really unique and something that has me interested in more korean/japanese mythology. I got quite attached to each character as well as their family dynamic. I was quite satisfied with the happy ending and even shed a few tears when Kim was "dying."
Hwa-rin initially gave me the impression that she was a "girl-boss" type character that was quite resolute and confident in herself. Bong-gil, in contrast, was a very quiet character that seemed to follow the protege role quite concretely. He allowed her to speak and aided and supported her in rituals. I initially quite liked Hwa-rin's character, but I was a bit disappointed later on when it seemed like even though she was characterized to be smart and quick-witted, she was always frozen in terror in moments that mattered the most. This is both a pro and con in my book as it gives her depth and allows her to break out of the "girl-boss" stereotype, but it was annoying to see her unable to do anything to help Bong-gil or protect him. Hwa-rin was initially driven by the money incentive and didn't really take into account the ominous signs she was seeing. Later, specifically after seeing the vertical coffin and the lack of money incentives, she's not so keen on joining. This shows that Hwa-rin's fundamentally thinking about the money as she is well established as a shaman. She's not as driven by a selfless desire to "cleanse the land" like Kim is. I really like Bong-gil, who's able to think quick on his feet and who's not as quiet as initially characterized. I really enjoyed Lee Do-hyun's acting when he was possessed and also impressed by his fluency in Japanese.
Kim and Ko were quite an interesting pair to watch. They're business partners but also friends who care for each other. My first impression of Ko was that he was greedy for money, which is true to a certain extent as he did steal jewelry from a coffin. However, I was quite happy when it was revealed that it was not because of Ko that the coffin was unsealed. It helped both establish his understanding of the dangers of the spirits despite his own religious beliefs and the trust between the pair. Ko wouldn't do that to Kim as he understands it would put both of them in danger. Kim initially was a gravemancer that seemed to follow his survival-instinct/gut. He refused to excavate the grave after seeing the ominous energy that was emitting from the plot, but was later convinced when Hwa-rin stated that she didn't need his permission. Throughout that scene, it's extremely clear that Kim is regretting joining them in excavating the grave. Later on, specifically after Park Jin-yong's death, we can see that Kim's mindset has changed significantly. He feels guilt from the deaths caused by the spirit and feels a sort of responsibility for that nameless grave. This causes him to go back to the plot of land and later discover the shogun. In the second half of the movie, Kim is extremely resolute in trying to address the issue, while in contrast, Hwa-rin is now unsure. In a sense, these two have kind of swapped stances although they're fueled by different motivations.
I thought one of the first lines Hwa-rin said was a bit interesting. She stated that "I'm Korean," to a Japanese flight attendant. This both helped establish that 1) she speaks japanese 2) people mistake her for japanese often, and 3) she wanted to make a distinction that she was not Japanese. When watching the movie I was confused as to why she needed to make that specific distinction but as this movie dealt with shoguns from imperial Japan and the war between the two countries, it made sense in the end. This movie kind of taps into Korean nationalism. Although I will say that line was a bit cringy when it did happen.
The first half of the movie lived up to my expectations of the movie. The suspense was built up masterfully and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The first scene with the nameless grave was so ominous I had to look away. The gore in the movie was not too little and not too much, and the combination of spirit possessions and the mix of Japanese and Korean made it unsettling to watch. I also really liked how the audio scape of the first half of this movie. Often times it was almost completely silent except for rustling/the sound of the breeze. I also enjoyed how the film was directed and that the spirits were often blurry/unfocused and although the focus of the scene, always out of focus. It had me squinting sometimes in the movie theatre lol.
The second half of the movie was quite a bit different I would say. Especially after the reveal of the shogun in his entirety, I would say the horror aspect of the film lost a lot of its "horror". It reminded me of the Barbarian, who also suffered from the same thing. I did enjoy the vertical grave scene, which was such a contrast to the previous scene at the grave plot as it was so much more lively with people and rituals. It just reinforced the ominous setting of the grave. Another scene I really liked was the first look at the shogun with Hwa-rin. It had me at the edge of my seat and Kim Go-eun's acting was superb in that scene. I liked the reveal of the reason why the shogun's there as well as the backstory behind the Park family. The visuals of the knife stabbing the penninsula of Korea was quite good. The scene where Hwa-rin was distracting the shogun was clever. I liked the idea that even the Shogun must be cautious of different gods. The scene itself just looked so visually pleasing as well. Aside from that, there were quite a few plot points I didn't like about the second half. The buddhist tattoos, which was the main focus of the movie tattoos were kind of treated as comedic relief in a scene, and later revealed quite quickly to be useless against the shogun. Basically just undermined the significance of those tattoos and it seemed like that entire plot point could be removed without issue. The last scene where Kim defeats the shogun had me completely confused and I don't think it was quite clear that the iron stake was in the shogun itself. Also the fact that the shogun was defeated so easily just based on the four elements- It definitely felt like an easy way out. They kind of built of the shogun to be industructible and it was also stated in the movie that "he couldn't be eliminated."
Overall, I think this movie was quite good. The premise is really unique and something that has me interested in more korean/japanese mythology. I got quite attached to each character as well as their family dynamic. I was quite satisfied with the happy ending and even shed a few tears when Kim was "dying."