"EXHUMA" KOREAN MOVIE REVIEW.

 "EXHUMA"

KOREAN MOVIE REVIEW.

.Exhuma,  is a 2024 South Korean supernatural horror film written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun, and starring Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jin and Lee Do-hyun. The film includes mystery and occult elements, and follows the process of excavating an ominous grave, which unleashes dreadful consequences buried underneath.

Exhuma premiered in the Forum section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on February 16, 2024. It was released theatrically on February 22 and received positive reviews from critics. The film has become highest-grossing South Korean film of 2024 and the sixth highest-grossing South Korean film of all time.

Renowned Korean shaman Hwa-rim, along with her protégé Bong-gil, is hired by a wealthy Korean American real estate developer family to diagnose the mysterious illness of their newborn son. Upon investigation, Hwa-rim discovers that the child is cursed by a vengeful spirit, known as the "Grave's Call," which stems from an unsettled ancestor. The family patriarch, Park Ji-Yong, asks Hwa-rim to relocate the grave of the ancestor—his grandfather—in hopes of appeasing the spirit and saving the child. To assist with the task, Hwa-rim enlists her colleagues: Feng Shui master Kim Sang-deok, who is desperate for money to pay for his daughter's wedding, and mortician Yeong-geun, with the promise of a lucrative payday.

Sang-deok, who specializes in finding burial plots for the wealthy, and Yeong-geun, who owns a funeral home, accompany Hwa-rim to meet Ji-Yong. However, Sang-deok becomes suspicious when Ji-Yong insists on cremating the grandfather's grave, located in a remote mountain near the North Korean border. Sensing dark energy, Sang-deok initially backs out of the job, but Ji-Yong convinces him to continue by offering double the pay. Hwa-rim reassures the team, explaining that she can perform a ritual to prevent the curse while they excavate the grave. During the conversation, Ji-Yong also shares that a famous monk, Gisune, had revealed the location of the grave to protect it from grave robbers.

As the team begins the excavation, Hwa-rim and Bong-gil conduct the ritual, and everything seems to go smoothly. However, disaster strikes when one of the gravediggers accidentally severs the head of a human-headed snake, which is seen as a bad omen. Shortly after, a storm breaks out. Yeong-geun suggests they cremate the coffin once the rain clears, so they store it temporarily at a nearby ward. However, the local custodian, driven by rumors of treasure inside the tomb, opens the coffin and unknowingly releases the vengeful spirit of Ji-Yong’s grandfather. This entity targets his bloodline, killing Ji-Yong’s parents and eventually Ji-Yong himself. It is revealed that Ji-Yong's grandfather was a Japanese loyalist during Korea's occupation, tormented by his improper burial. Before the entity can kill the baby, Sang-deok manages to cremate the coffin, lifting the curse.

Months later, Yeong-geun tells Sang-deok about a gravedigger who has been mentally disturbed since the incident with the snake. Upon investigating the gravesite, Sang-deok uncovers the decapitated snake's head and a hidden seven-foot-tall standing coffin. He quickly gathers Hwa-rim, Bong-gil, and Yeong-geun to deal with this second coffin. As they excavate it, they decide to rest at a nearby temple, where Hwa-rim learns of a sinister figure, Gisune, who turns out to be a powerful Japanese shaman named Murayama Junji, also known as "The Fox." That night, Bong-gil witnesses a ghoul slaughtering the temple's priest and a local pig farmer, along with his livestock. The group discovers the coffin has been ripped open from the inside, and Hwa-rim is attacked by the ghoul—revealed to be a samurai. Bong-gil is injured and possessed, while the others watch the ghoul transform into a ball of fire, returning to the mountain.

Hwa-rim then investigates the origins of the ghoul through Bong-gil, who is still under possession. Sang-deok returns to the grave, discovering the dormant samurai at coordinates etched on the tombstone. He uncovers a dark secret: during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Imperial Japanese government ordered their shamans to implant large iron spiritual spikes throughout the land to disrupt Korea’s life force, making it easier to rule. The grave robbers Ji-Yong’s family had feared were actually Korean patriots trying to unearth and remove these spiritual spikes. The samurai ghoul was created by Gisune to guard one of these spikes.

Realizing the stakes, Hwa-rim, Sang-deok, and Yeong-geun form a plan to destroy the relic once the ghoul rises at midnight. Hwa-rim distracts the samurai, while the others dig up the spike. During this, Sang-deok has a vision revealing that The Fox had transformed a decapitated samurai into the ghoul by embedding a katana inside his body, with Ji-Yong’s grandfather’s grave being a cover for the relic. Sang-deok understands that the samurai himself is the iron spike, representing the fire element in Feng Shui. He concludes that only the elements of water and wood can defeat the ghoul. Armed with this knowledge, Sang-deok uses a wooden pickaxe soaked in his own blood to vanquish the samurai spirit. Although he is gravely injured in the process, Sang-deok regains consciousness later in the hospital, with the others by his side.

A few months pass, and the group attends Sang-deok's daughter's wedding, relieved that the curse has been lifted and the danger has passed.