MovieChat Forums > Gokseong (2016) Discussion > My interpretation of the movie

My interpretation of the movie

posted 7 years ago by oddeveneven
12 replies | jump to latest

The following is my attempt to explain the movie. Nevertheless, there are still a few points that are inconsistent with my explanation.

There are two supernatural forces at work: the feeble good, represented by the woman in white, who is the guardian angle of the province where the events take place, and the potent evil, represented by the demon we see in the end. The guardian angle has a fixed physical form, however the demon has no physical form (though it does have a spirit animal: crows, but they possess no special magical powers; they simply mark its presence).

Both the guardian angle and the demon can exert magical powers only through the mediation of human beings, however they gain access to humans in different ways: whereas the guardian angle must ask a person to follow her orders without questioning (i.e. to demonstrate blind faith in her), the demon takes hold of a person's body forcefully by raping them. There are two other, rarer methods by which the demon can come to possess a human being, as explained below.

In the beginning of the movie the demon inhabits the body of the Japanese man (it remains a mystery how the demon came to inhabit this man), however after the shaman's death hex ritual is interrupted by the protagonist (i.e. the policeman), the hex backfires and the demon, wrenched out of the Japanese man's body by the shaman's hex, takes over the shaman. Thus in the beginning of the movie the Japanese man is bad and the shaman is good, but after the interrupted hex the Japanese man is good and the shaman is bad.

While the (still good) shaman is performing the death hex ritual to kill/banish the demon, the (possessed) Japanese man is performing a ritual to resurrect the corpse he had found in a stranded truck in the middle of the forest in a previous scene. Once the demon leaves the (now good) Japanese man's body and moves into the (now bad) shaman, the Japanese man realizes the gravity of what he had done and runs in panic to the truck, hoping against hope to find the corpse as dead as it had been when he had spotted it there previously. To his horror, the corpse is not in the truck. He realizes that the corpse has turned into a zombie due to the black spell he cast. He runs to his hut to try and stop the zombie, but it is too late: the zombie had already been killed by the gang that the policeman had put together, and the gang is now after him, intent on killing him. So he runs away.

When the gang chases the (now good) Japanese man with the intention of killing him, they are chasing an innocent man; innocent in the same sense as when an insane man kills another person while in the throes of a psychotic episode is not considered responsible for his actions. Therefore the gang's murderous intentions towards the (now good) Japanese man, and their subsequent dishonorable disposal of his body, constitute a sin. Due to this sin, the demon, who had been wrenched out of the little girl's body as a result of the (good, at the time) shaman's death hex ritual, is able to repossess her.

[–] gyalmo 7 years ago

I think you have still left a lot of strands unconnected. This movie is frustratingly confusing and I suspect this is deliberate. My conclusion is that it is not clear whether the lady ghost (or angel as you call her) is good or bad. She prevents the Dad from going to his house and makes him wait and when he does it was already too late. Also you did not address the transformation the Japanese guy goes through in the cave in the end. My theory is that the Japanese guy was once also a Shaman who got possessed by the evil spirit he once tried to cast away. And you may be right that he was trying to get rid off it by some ritual by passing it on to the dead corps, in which he partially succeeds much to his own surprise. It could also be that he came to that village with a prior knowledge or mission to destroy this other demon.

The Korean shaman, I think gets it right, and was on the verge of successfully curing the girl until the father interrupts the whole ritual. But he was unaware of the lady ghost. That caused the spirit to come back with vengeance. Remember, before that even the father was having the same nightmares along with many other villagers. My theory is that this is a territorial dispute between two evil spirits. The dispute being initiated by the intrusion of the Japanese demon into the lady ghost's territory. They are unable to get rid of each other so they use the villagers as pawn to play against each other. Of course their fight is horrifying and deadly to the entire village. As for the Korean shaman and his possession of a camera and the photographs its a mystery. It could be that he had confronted this Japanese guy at his hut at some point and took away his possession for ritualistic purposes. If you remember when the Dad (the main Character) goes to the hut to confront him the second time the Japanese guy says that he had burned all the pictures. Him being the medium for the demon had good reason to lie as it would raise suspicions if he admits that a shaman had taken away his objects.

I have read some reviews that say this is also a parody of Korean politics and history. I can see why a Japanese is the bad guy as Koreans and Japanese have tense relationship in the past to put it mildly. But I don't know much about current Korean politics.

In the end, it is a very confusing and messy plot, but very gripping and relentless. I have to say I enjoyed the movie very much. It really doesn't matter to me how the movie ended. I can live with that confusion and wonder...

[–] oddeveneven 7 years ago

> you did not address the transformation the Japanese guy goes through in the cave in the end

Yeah, this is one of the points that are not well explained by my theory. One possibility is that the entire cave sequence takes place in the young priest's delirious mind. He has, after all, been bitten by a zombie, so is likely infected with the disease that causes people to lose their minds.

[–] Martialhorror 7 years ago

I agree with your initial post and your 'delirious mind' theory is one I hadn't really thought of. It's possible that the cave was meant to represent the possession of the Priest, but I sort of have a different interpretation.

In my eyes, the demon did hop from the Japanese Man to the Shaman after the failed death hex. For awhile, the Japanese Man regained his humanity, although he becomes a demon in time to throw himself in front of the protagonists truck. I assume that the demon can possess multiple people at once, but was weakened by the spell momentarily, which is why the Japanese Man regained control for a bit.

I was under the impression that the cave scene was supposed to play into the Christian iconography. Sort of like how the protagonists test of faith was reminiscent of Peter denying Christ, the demon adopts some anti-christ properties. In the bible, the anti-christ is 'killed' and his body becomes a vessel for the devil. In "The Wailing", the Japanese Man died when the protagonist threw him off the road, so now the demon has made his body his primary host. The Anti-Christ theme continues when the demon starts showing the holes in his hands, although it's also possible he was just taunting the Priest and he's not literally the anti-christ or the devil.

The Shaman has the pictures, because the Japanese Man didn't really burn them all. He probably hid them, and the Shaman collected them later.

Interesting Note: I assumed that the Priest could've defeated the demon, but he doomed himself when he brought the weapon with him to the cave, revealing his lack of faith. The movie makes it clear that murder is not the solution, even when dealing with pedo-bear demons- and the demon even brings up the weapon almost immediately. This is also why the girl doesn't kill the Japanese Man while he's weak.
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[–] oddeveneven 7 years ago

> This is also why the girl doesn't kill the Japanese Man while he's weak.

Then why didn't she kill him beforehand, when he was still possessed? She had ample opportunities to do so.

I recently wrote an IMDB review on this movie under the username "MovieWatcher". I claimed that all attempts to make sense of the movie were destined for failure, since it was fundamentally inconsistent, possibly by intention. There are several narratives that can be put forward, which will be consistent with many of the events in the movie, but there always seem to be some pieces that simply won't fall in place.

In the end of the review I suggested that maybe the pieces were not meant to fit together at all. What if it was the director's intent to lead the audience on into engaging in frustrating, futile attempts to piece together a puzzle whose pieces don't fit by design?

I read somewhere that the director stated that he wrote the movie after trying to make sense of tragedies he experienced in his private life. He turned to spiritual mentors of various faiths, but only ever got vague explanations that left him unsatisfied. What if the movie is intended to put the audience in the same state of mind that the director felt trying unsuccessfully to make sense of the random brutality that surrounded him?

[–] Martialhorror 7 years ago

1) She can't kill it, period. I only brought up that she didn't do so while he was weak because that was the moment when I started wondering why she wouldn't do so and there's even a shot where she's watching him with an ominous stare while he's recovering. Later on, when the protagonist kills the Japanese Man (or at least leaves him for dead), she can't protect his daughter anymore. "The Wailing" takes 'though shall not kill' to the extreme.

2) You're kind of right. Apparently the film had an early screening that was longer, less ambiguous and even had an extending ending that formally wraps the story up. The director decided to re-edit it to make it a lot more vague, wanting to make us (the audience) experience the same confusion of the protagonist.

Nevertheless, I think the pieces mostly fit together fine.

1) The Japanese Man appears to be a former Monk, who was possessed- possibly through lust (there is a lot of rape subtext with him and he has pornography in his possession). He spreads his corruption throughout the town and eventually targets the protagonist.

2) The ghost woman attempts to help those who are targeted, but ultimately can only help those who help themselves. There is a lot of 'God/Jesus' subtext involving her. She's also the one who struck that guy with lightning, in a failed attempt to drive them away from the Japanese Man.

3) The Protagonist recruits the Shaman, who initially is a good guy, but becomes possessed once the death hex is interrupted. The Shaman warns that the spell can backfire if interrupted and immediately afterwards, he gives an aside glance similar to the Japanese Man and he then starts behaving suspiciously.

4) The Shaman did injure the Japanese Monk, who briefly regains his humanity. But the demon resumes control and throws himself in front of the protagonists truck and he is thrown off the steep road, presumably to his death. Notice how the rain stops? That's a sign that her protection has ended.

5) Anti-Christ symbolism comes to play, although it's not stated how much time went on between the Japanese Man's death and 'resurrection'. But the daughter is now fully possessed. The Japanese woman drives the Shaman away, but the demon stops him (using locusts, I think). The protagonist is given conflicting information as to whether he should trust the woman, but now has to take a leap of faith. The whole 'wait until the rooster crows 3 times' resembles Peter's denial of Jesus. He fails and his family is doomed.

6) The Priest decides to confront of the demon, but his own lack of faith shows when he brings a weapon (remember, 'though shall not kill'), so he's doomed the moment the demon notices him. He's presumably possessed, as the demon seems to like taking over the bodies of religious agents. The anti-Christ inspired imagery comes in the form of the holes in his hands, although he might just be taunting the Priest.

7) The Shaman captures the souls of the protagonists family (through the photos), revealing his own demonic shrine of pictures. Some have argued that this shows he was evil all along, but I think the Japanese Man hid the majority of them and the Shaman just retrieved those pictures after his own possession.

So to me, it makes sense, but obviously there is a lot left up to interpretation and to a point, I think that was the directors goal. The reason why it seems so confusing (besides the re-editing to add to the ambiguity) is that it relies a lot on the knowledge of Korean culture, as well as Shamanism and Christianity.

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[–] gabrielaraujogrilo-46548 7 years ago

I believe you are almost right about the movie's interpretation. This movie is more simple for Christian people than we imagine. Besides I'm not Christian, the director did a great job misleading people's mind, specially mixing different cultures. This is how I saw:

This movie is basically christian and involves parallel religion (shamanism) as a trial of interference. South Korean religion nowadays is mostly Christianity-based. We can also notice that with the biblical verse cited at the beginning.

The white dressed girl is a guardian angel, and not a bad spirit. She is young, dresses white and like angels, it has an androgynous form (man-woman-like). She gives good information and tries to protect the young girl placing an amulet (flower/herb) in her door's entrance at the end. She is present following the Japanese steps and sits outside the house of innocents. She can influence straight in bad spirits, like pushing the Japanese down the hill (maybe) or expelling the bad shaman (see below). However she cannot do anything, but guidance only (as angels).

The Japanese guy is the demon the whole time. There is no scene of the movie in which the Japanese shows positive view. Based on cultural info, several South Korean people see Japaneses as a bad influence. The same way that if the movie was done in an American village, the demon was supposed to be an outsider (maybe a Russian guy).

The Shaman is good at the beginning (naive for Christian's demon), but the interruption of his ritual hex weakens him and everyone. There were 2 hex rituals at the same time: the shaman's ritual was the only one interrupted. The Japanese ritual may not only resurrected the "zombie" (dead soul) but "infected" the shaman (not sure). The shaman returns to his home, check that he is not fully protected (candles blow out), and run away to Seoul. His trip is interrupted by crow's poop (demon's action) and forces him to return to the village area. Shaman is now bad (possessed). Shaman is not Christian - easy influenced by Christian demon.

The Japanese's body (demon the whole time) "dies" to mislead chasers, and falsely convince his is "out". But he is not dead. It appears at end in the same body he way was before, and then shows his "true image" in front of the priest.

The father (police officer) is a Christian sinner. Drinks alcohol, low faith (specially in angel), mistreats others for his own interests. He is "guilty and non believer".

It looks that the whole village "possessed people" were sinners, and the demon is there to collect there souls. Now the truth demon (Japanese) has a follower: Shaman guy.

[–] foxyrabbit 7 years ago

i'm pretty sure the other guy's theory is much more correct

the hex ritual hurt both the japanese guy and the little girl because they were both being possessed by the same entity. the ritual drove out the demon but when it was interrupted it backfired as the shaman warned previously and he becomes possessed.

it's clear that the japanese guy had a moment of clarity after he awakens from almost dying from the hex ritual. he runs to the truck to check on the body and is alarmed that it's no longer there. i'm pretty sure that he's the one who saved the angry villagers from the zombie (the zombie suddenly collapses on itself and dies shortly after he shows up). he runs away from them and shows genuine fear. before this he has always been pretty much emotionless.

next he sees the woman spirit guardian and chases after her. she may not have realized that he is no longer possessed at this point, or that he may have started becoming possessed again. he presumably slips and falls and ends up getting hit by the truck. after he died his body became up for grabs to be fully possessed by the demon/devil, who is capable of possessing multiple hosts, as seen before.

however at this point he is assumed to be dead, and the possessed shaman laughs to himself and says something along the lines of the rats have taken to the trap, as everyone has started to let their guard down.

you are right about the sinners part though. the demon/devil leaves out "bait" as the (at the time, good) shaman said. the bait is to create opportunities for people to turn to sin, which then opens them up for infection of the body and possession of the soul.

i don't see this as wholly christian but as a mix between christian beliefs and korean folklore. a battle between the two, you might say

[–] jkmetz-77175 7 years ago

Another indication of the Japanese guy being perceived as bad is that he seems to be have been a Buddhist at one time but now also has the symbols of the Devil in his sanctuary. But as we all know perceptions can be misleading.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 7 years ago

I claimed that all attempts to make sense of the movie were destined for failure, since it was fundamentally inconsistent, possibly by intention. There are several narratives that can be put forward, which will be consistent with many of the events in the movie, but there always seem to be some pieces that simply won't fall in place.

This is the only explanation I can agree wholeheartedly with. I like the movie, but attempts to explain it are an exercise in futility.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] ze_goose 7 years ago

In the bible, the anti-christ is 'killed' and his body becomes a vessel for the devil.

I don't remember reading this; could you provide a reference to this, please?

[–] Don_Cheech 7 years ago

I agree. Plus, it fits with the whole "god works in mysterious ways" theme.

[–] jkmetz-77175 7 years ago

I just finished watching this movie--here's my thoughts and questions. First I think this movie shows the competition between various types of good an evil. As to why the little girl is possessed--I haven't a clue unless it was as the lady in white said, to punish the father--as to why he needed punishing??? The Japanese man is definitely the Devil, at the end, but was he really a shaman that was possessed by the Devil after he was killed by the truck? I think this is what happened--this would explain the good the Japanese guy tried to do up to that point. The hired shaman is yet another form of evil in that he was a money grubbing hoaxer that hopes to increase his celebrity by outdoing the perceived Demon--and as we saw, the hired shaman nearly does this before being interrupted by the father/policeman. Here's what's got me confused--what exactly did the Japanese man want to do with the dead guy in the pickup? Did me want to make him into an evil decidable (meaning he was at that time the Devil)--if so why did he look so panicked when he ran to the pickup and found the man gone (was this because he was at that time a shaman and was trying to stop the Devil's disciple cycle)? Then I have this question--why did the Japanese man hang onto the rocks to make it look like he had gone over the cliff? If he were actually the Devil couldn't he have just disappeared?

The interaction with the lady in white and the hired shaman makes sense to me because the hired shaman was also evil in that he dupes people to make a living--so his reaction to pure good was to be sickened.

Now to the ending scenes--the lady in white and the hired shaman gave the man a choice--he could obey the instructions the lady gave him--or he could obey the instructions the hired shaman gave him. As in life--we are given a choice, sometimes a not so easy choice--but a choice never the less--about who to believe. We have no idea what would have happened had the man not gone home until the third rooster crow--perhaps the demons infesting his house would have just left without harming anyone. But we do know what happened when he declined the lady in white's instructions--he found destruction. Shouldn't this leave a question in the viewer's mind--what happens when we make a wrong choice?--would the other choice have been better? Now as to the paid shaman having the pictures--I believe he took the pictures from the Japanese man's house in order to give him a leg up in his shaman battle with the Japanese man.