'Exhuma' tops 5 million admissions within 10 days of release

Digital poster for ″Exhuma″ is shown on the screen of a theater in Seoul on March 3. [NEWS1]

The Korean occult film "Exhuma" surpassed 5 million admissions within 10 days of its release, the fastest film to do so in 2024.

The film saw 5,381,156 tickets sold at the end of Saturday, 10 days since its release on Feb. 22, according to the Korea Box Office Information System (Kobis). The previous record, held by the 2023 hit history drama “12.12: The Day," was 5 million tickets in 18 days.

“Exhuma” is the third movie that Jang Jae-hyun has directed and written, following “The Priests” (2015) and “Svaha: The Sixth Finger” (2019). The film has earned commercial success for its subtle criticism of Japanese imperialist rule between 1910 and 1945, especially in tandem with the March 1 Independence Movement Day.

The horror film stars “Oldboy” (2003) actor Choi Min-sik, along with Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jin and Lee Do-hyun, who makes his first silver screen appearance.

Kim plays Hwa-rim, a shaman who — along with her partner medium, Bong-gil, played by Lee — receives a request from a Korean family in the United States plagued by hauntings. Deeming the issue to have stemmed from the family’s ancestors, the duo, along with a feng shui expert and an undertaker, exhume the family ancestors’ grave. But unsettling events occur after something escapes from the coffin, including deaths and possessions.

The film premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, with a screening on Feb. 16. It was included in the Forum section, which showcases experimental films, an honor director Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer” (2013) and Kim Tae-yong’s “Late Autumn” (2010) received in the past.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]