Feng shui and urban legends in 'Exhuma': What you should understand

Movies

Published: 24 Mar. 2024, 07:30

Feng shui and urban legends in 'Exhuma': What you should understand

Actor Choi Min-sik in "Exhuma" plays feng shui master Sang-deok [SHOWBOX]

During Japan's colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945, one of the strongest beliefs held by Koreans was feng shui, called pungsu jiri in Korean.

The direction in which to position your bed, where to have your family burial grounds, which house to purchase and so on — these were some of the crucial decisions that would be made with the help of a feng shui expert to achieve harmony and balance in everyday life.

But it is said that this belief was not welcomed by the Japanese during the colonial period. One Korean urban legend says that the Japanese hammered iron rods across Korea’s mountain ranges at different locations in an attempt to cut off the flow of feng shui energy. The establishment of the Japanese Government-General in Korea right by the Gyeongbok Palace was also to hinder the energy flow, feng shui experts say.

In the early 1980s, a private mountain climbing club was formed to go around different mountains looking for those iron rods. According to news articles at the time, they did find 27 iron rods in Mount Bukhan and donated 15 to the Independence Hall of Korea in April 1985.

The iron rods were indeed hammered into the mountain by the Japanese during the colonization, but some news articles claim they were just used to mark a trail in the mountain in 1920s.

Regardless, the truth didn’t matter much to many Koreans back in the day. In 1995, during the Kim Young-sam administration, it turned into political demagogy as the president said that the government would lead and support Koreans to try to find and remove all the iron rods, to mark the 50th anniversary of Korea’s independence.

Actor Kim Go-eun as shaman Hwa-rim performing a shamanistic ritual known as gut as a grave gets exhumed in director Jang Jae-hyun's latest film "Exhuma." [SHOWBOX]

This urban legend forms the backbone of director Jang Jae-hyun’s latest film “Exhuma,” which is just short of selling 10 million tickets ahead of the weekend. Jang said the film starts off with a scene based off a memory from his childhood, hearing the urban legend and later being shocked after witnessing a grave of more than 100 years being exhumed while a shamanistic ritual, known as gut, was being conducted. Jang said he wanted to showcase Korean history and social traditions embedded in different religions and beliefs — mainly shamanism and feng shui — through his latest film.

“Those iron rods play a big part in the film, but I tried hard so that it would not ring a bell to the viewers throughout the film,” Jang said. “There are only hypotheses and theories as to whether all the iron rods are gone and the reason behind them being installed. Plus, the opinions are still divided and not even I can be sure.”

Jang added that is why he does not show whether the rod was really eradicated or not, but rather focuses on showing a protagonist desperate to get rid of it.

“Exhuma” is being released in 133 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Vietnam and Thailand, according to its distributor Showbox. For these viewers overseas, it may be helpful to gain some insight into some of the rituals, traditions and superstitions that appear in the film.

In “Exhuma,” shamans Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun), feng shui master Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik) and undertaker Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin) form a team to excavate the grave of a wealthy Korean American family's ancestor after the family members become plagued by hauntings. Hwa-rim tells the family it’s because their ancestor is infuriated for being buried on a bad land in terms of feng shui and that they’ll have to exhume the grave and either relocate or cremate the body.

There are multiple factors that determine what is or is not an ideal spot, but a feng shui expert wouldn’t necessarily taste the dirt to make the decision, as actor Choi does in the film.

Ahn Young-bae, a former Dong-A Ilbo journalist with a Ph.D. in geomancy, said he believes the actor probably did that just to get a “visual aspect to show on screen” that he is a feng shui master.

“Usually, feng shui masters work things out using their knowledge and experience to determine what good land is,” Ahn said, adding that this would looked “boring” compared to the scenes that show shamanistic rituals. “I think that is why the actor and the director added that scene — for dramatization.”

Also in the film, Choi witnesses foxes around the graveyard and comments that “foxes and graveyards just don’t mix.” According to Ahn, this is because “foxes are fodient animals, so our ancestors from long ago considered it a bad burial graveyard if many foxes were spotted in the area, because they feared they might dig up the grave.”

Later, Choi throws a 100-won coin into a hollow grave after finishing the exhuming process. This is due to the tradition of throwing a 10-won coin or three 10-won coins in the grave as a sort of fee for using the land until then. But for the sake of filming and since 10-won coins are copper colored and not easily visible on top of dirt, the director said he decided to use a silver-colored 100-won coin.

A scene from "Exhuma" [SHOWBOX]

In the film, Choi says that “the upper class are more superstitious, relying more on Yin-Yang and feng shui.”

Kim Doo-kyu, a folklorist and professor of Liberal Arts at Woosuk University, told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, that he can’t deny that the royals during the Joseon Dynasty and the politicians and the presidents were familiar with feng shui, especially when it came to picking out a tomb site.

According to historical documents, Queen Myeongseong relocated her father’s grave four times in an attempt to find the best location. In fact, Joseon’s 40 royal tombs scattered across Seoul are considered some of the most propitious sites regarding feng shui and even earned Unesco World Heritage Status in 2009. Unesco cited that all 40 “spots of outstanding natural beauty were chosen for the tombs which typically have their back protected by a hill as they face south toward water and ideally, layers of mountain ridges in the distance,” as one of the reasons the title was granted. This, of course, is a prerequisite in feng shui.

Kim also said that politicians, while running for presidency, often relocate their parents’ tombs.

Former president Kim Dae-jung is known to have relocated his parents’ tombs after losing the presidential election several times. Former Prime Minister Lee Hoi-chang also relocated his parents tomb twice, though he never did make it to the top.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]