MovieChat Forums > Gokseong (2016) Discussion > My take (spoilers)

My take (spoilers)

posted 5 years ago by JakeSWITCH (504)
6 replies | jump to latest

The shaman and the demon are partners.

The Japanese demon (obviously symbolic of Japan's occupation of Korea) causes all of the illnesses and murders in the countryside. After a certain amount of time has passed, the shaman, a Korean man who is making money by selling a hybrid of foreign religions to rural villages, comes in an "defeats" him.

The demon gets his photos (essentially souls) and the shaman makes money. Then they travel to the next town and repeat the process - this is backed up by the deleted ending, which shows the demon trying to lure a child to him by a roadside, then being picked up in a car by the shaman and driving on.

The scene where the shaman and demon are both engaged in rituals seems to confuse people. Essentially, the shaman's ritual causes discomfort to the little girl, whereas the demon's ritual is an attempt to create a zombie (before he is struck down by the female nature spirit). Obviously, the director edited these scenes in such a way as to hide the fact that the shaman was in league with the demon by making it seem that the two rituals were connected.

Speaking of the female spirit, she seems to belong to the land and protect the village. She weakens the demon, casts him out of the forest, makes the shaman vomit blood and runs his car off the road using moths. We also see that she attempted to trap the demon earlier in the film by hanging her herbs near the house where the first bodies are found ... however, the villagers lack faith in the natural spirits of Korea, preferring to believe the shaman and his hybridized foreign religion or putting their faith in Christianity.

It doesn't seem like the female nature spirit can destroy either the demon or the shaman (she only physically interacts with one person at the film, at the very end), but is obviously powerful enough to force them out of the village.

The entire film is essentially a critique of how Korea has lost sight of it's own beliefs by putting its faith elsewhere, leaving it vulnerable to the ultimate evil (in this case, a combination of the Japanese and an otherworldly demon).

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You can read all of my latest film reviews here: https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/about/Jake

[–] Ed (522) 4 years ago

Great interpretation, great film. Beautifully shot, very eerie atmosphere, good acting. I add it to The Witch and It Follows as two of my favorite recent horror films. Triangle is another good one too, but more tradtional.

[–] JakeSWITCH (504) 4 years ago

Thanks! 'Triangle' is great. It's a shame that Christopher Smith doesn't make more films.

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You can read all of my latest film reviews here: https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/about/Jake

[–] [email protected] (1629) 4 years ago

Nature spirit? Is this your own made up mother earth feminist religion? Christianity is 2000 years old and if you go by Christian belief it is in fact 6000 years old. It's origin isn't the west but the middle east.

Korean shaminism is a prehistoric animistic religion prevalent in North and Southeast Asia before Buddhism, Hinduism, or the Abrahamic faiths.

Your made up sjw mother earth feminist religion is but 8 months old founded by you.

There is no indication that the Korean shaminism is an amalgamation of other religions particularly Christianity.

Btw Christianity was not brought to Korea, it was Koreans themselves who discovered it and they have one of the most martyrs for a people who took it upon themselves without any missionaries. Christianity is not made specifically only for westerners, it didn't even originated from you guys so you can't claim it as yours. Besides most of you have abandoned it, perhaps others will take up the mantle better than you. You guys might end up Muslims anyways, the new middle east by the look of things.

[–] TylerAArse (2654) 4 years ago

I do agree that The shaman and the demon were buddies. Scamming people to get cash flow. The rest of the movie may be above my head. I'd have to watch it again.

[–] yvesyves (630) 4 years ago

if the demon was so ''powerful'' why would he need to partner up with someone to scam people out of money - which seeing how the villagers live most not be millions - and not simply find a way to steal or blackmail?

I think there were two demons, the japanese guy and the young woman in white, and the shaman never expected there to be two of them he logically thought the Jap guy was it and was the only one.

[–] spurtle467 (1498) 3 years ago

That seems a very sound interpretation. Having just watched this film for the first time (and I rather enjoyed it), it's interesting that when the shaman asked for 10 grand from the father to perform his death hex, it raised suspicion in me at that point that someone would be willing to help not just an innocent family, but all of the people in the village, for money like that, rather than do it for nothing because saving innocent lives is the moral thing to do. I didn't necessarily think he was bad though, more like a greedy yet good natured man of faith that ties in with the sort of quirky behaviour of some of the other characters it's already presented. Now that it turns out he was in cahoots with the demon, it all makes sense.