THE WAILING/ GOKSUNG

Korea, 2016, 156 minutes, Colour.
Jun Kunikura, Hwang Jung-min.
Directed by Hong-jun Na.

For anyone on the lookout for exotically different Korean films, this is probably a must. The director has previously made two crime films, The Chaser as well as a film about gangsters in China and Korea, Yellow Sea.

For those who have seen these two films, they are not quite a preparation for this one. it should be said that to appreciate the background as well as what is going on, some knowledge of Korean traditions of ghosts and spirits would be very helpful. An awareness of the role of the shaman in Korean society would be another advantage. This is a ghost film.

It is also quite a long film, over 2 ½ hours. The audience is immersed in a rural village where someone has gone berserk and there are some brutal murders. These continue and there is concern as to what is the cause of this plague, doctors and hospitals focusing on some kind of toxin, many of the citizens suspicious of a demonic spirit. As the deaths continue, suspicion lands on a Japanese visitor who lives in his hut in the woods and is seen behaving in strange ways.

On the unexpected aspects of the film, however, is the narrowing focus on one of the local police who is left to do the investigations and seems to have all the responsibility himself – no going to higher ups. And the focus is even narrower when his beloved young daughter behaves in a most erratic way with a demon possessing her. The policeman’s mother-in-law seeks out a shaman (someone who has lived in Korea for a long time mentioned that the shaman is generally female in Korea). This man is rather mercenary, goes through a lot of rituals and one wonders by the end whether he has not been possessed.

The policeman is an unlikely lead for the story, a simple man, not as thin as he used to be, devoted to his wife, concerned about his daughter – and leading a group of men into the forest to investigate the hut of the Japanese man. This leads to a great deal of mayhem – and the film also introduces another spirit, a young woman in white. Who is the real Demon?

The film also has some Catholic interest concerning clergy in Korea, the introduction of the nephew of the assistant policeman, a deacon, doing pastoral work in the parish, clerically dressed, who accompanies the investigators to the Japanese visitor who is suspected of being the evil spirit incarnate. There is a momentary visit to the parish priest who, rather unctuously, says he cannot do anything.

The deacon is severely injured in an encounter with the spirit. Later he visits the Japanese man in his cave to confront him and be rid of him. The demon extends his hand which seems to have a Christ-wound in his hand. (The film had opened with a quotation from Luke 24: 37-40 with Jesus allaying fears that the disciples were seeing a ghost, explaining that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as he has – and he shows them his wounds). The film is one of Korean pessimism, death all round including the deacon conquered by the demon.

Not a mainstream entertainment film, but of interest about Korean culture.


1. The title, the tone?

2. The Koran settings, the town, the mountains and forests, the streets, houses, huts? The musical score?

3. The importance of Korean traditions about ghosts and spirits? Presence in possession? Rituals and resources? The role of the shaman? The different religions, the Buddhist tradition, Christianity and Catholic Korea? The deacon, the priest, the Catholic tone, the quotation from Luke’s Gospel, the image of the Japanese ghost with pierced hands?

4. The opening text, ghosts and incarnation?

5. Situation in the village, the deaths, the macabre visuals, the victims, the killers? The medicines, the food, toxins? The hospital? The spread, the plague, the pustules on people’s faces?

6. The police and the investigations, the transition to?????, his waking, house, his wife and mother-in-law, his daughter? At the periphery of the group yet being the local authority? His role in the investigations? Information, clumsy? The growing focus on him – and the audience not seeing any accountability to other authorities? Narrowing the drama to him, his daughter and family? age, his size, manner? Relationship with his wife, the sex in the car, the daughter coming to the window? Breakfast sequences? Love for his daughter, buying the comb? Love for his daughter?

7. The man in the forest, hunting, the animal, carrying it, falling down the cliff, seeing the Japanese man, chomping on the animal, his fears? The impact of the Japanese man?

8. The Japanese man, the story, seeming to be sinister, the visit to his home, the quiet, the rooms, the candle and the shrine, the photos, macabre? His watching? The attack, the fight, the later visits, the Japanese burning the photos? Suspicions? Their thinking he was a ghost?

9. The Catholic aspects, the policeman with his nephew deacon, clerical dress and collar, his accompanying the group to the house, his praying in the church, the discussions with the parish priest and his consciously withdrawing, present for the attack, his injuries, back in the village? His going to the cave, fighting Japanese man, the conflict of wills, his wanting the truth, seeing the pierced hand? The fire consuming him?

10. The daughter, the beginnings of bizarre behaviour, assessed, greedily eating, the injuries?

11. The mother-in-law, the consultation with the shaman, the mother? His arriving? His mercenary attitude, his case of implements, performing the rituals? The diagnosis, its effect? His leaving, the car, his box, the statue of the Buddha? Driving away? His alleged wrong diagnosis? In the presence of the girl, his vomiting? The critique of possession?

12. The policeman, experiences, become desperate, growing number of victims, interactions with the shaman?

13. The Japanese man, the pursuit, the zombie creature, the chase? The disappearance of the Japanese?

14. The policeman, seeing the girl, a ghost or not, his dilemmas, the phone calls, talking about the cook crowing three times, his indecision about leaving, the girl sitting on the road?

15. The twists of the plot, who was the diabolical presence, the girl or the Japanese man? The deacon in the cave and confrontation with the Japanese and the revelation of his diabolical presence?

16. The pessimism of the end and all the destruction?