People always complain about anti-Japanese dramas, thinking that the plots of hiding thunder in the crotch and tearing up Japanese soldiers with hands are insulting to the IQ.
But unexpectedly, South Korea also made anti-Japanese mythical films, and took this genre to new heights, setting off a movie-watching boom across Asia.
This is the latest thriller and suspense film in 2024 - "Broken Tomb" starring Choi Min-sik, Ko Jin-eun and Lee Dae-hyun.
How awesome is this movie?
It was released at the end of February this year and attracted 2 million viewers to buy tickets in the first weekend, breaking South Korea's annual opening record.
quickly became the first Korean movie in 2024 to have more than 10 million viewers, breaking all records set by "Seoul Spring". Now the total box office has exceeded 114 billion won, which is equivalent to more than 600 million yuan.
has been released for 2 months now, and it has already ranked tenth on the box office list in Korean film history.
blossoms inside and outside the wall. Its overseas box office has exceeded 30 million US dollars, second only to " Parasite " and " Train to Busan " among Korean movies.
It is also very popular in China. Although it has not been released in domestic theaters, at the Beijing Film Festival some time ago, the film sold out in seconds and became extremely popular.
However, while it is booming at the box office, its Douban score is only 6.8, which is far from being a masterpiece.
Why is a movie with average reputation a box office hit?
Because "Broken Tomb" touches on a common and sensitive topic in the entire East Asian culture-death and funeral culture.
Chinese people are very secretive about death. Movies that touch on this topic are either made into literary and artistic films about bitterness and hatred, or into purely entertainment films, such as "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" and "Tomb Robbers Notes".
The success of "Tomb Breaker" lies in finding a balance between seriousness and entertainment.
To break the tomb is to move the tomb.
If the feng shui of the ancestral tomb is not good, the descendants will be in trouble, so for the sake of good luck, they find a feng shui master to move the grave. This is a common custom in East Asian culture and is still used today.
The director of this film, Jang Jae-hyun, has lived in the countryside since he was a child and has been exposed to too much funeral culture. After becoming a director, he wanted to shoot a film related to this. During the filming of
, he worked with the funeral director, Feng Shui master, and wizard for a year, personally participated in the funeral work, and accumulated a lot of experience. The filming period of
's entire film lasted for 2 years. During the filming process, the director tried not to use CG and allowed the actors to perform physical performances in order to pursue a sense of reality.
The director initially named the film "The Mummy of Korea" considering the audience's acceptance. Later, a friend told him that the word "broken tomb" was more impactful, so he decided on the name.
What is impactful is not just the title, but the film itself.
Brother Pi watched the movie for the first time and felt that he was still unsatisfied.
's one-sentence review is: It's obviously not a high-end film, and several scenes are very cliché, but it's done in one go, and I can't stop.
Let’s talk about the story first, a very typical suspense film setting.
In a Korean family in the United States, the ancestors are still alive, and the family is restless.
Onmyoji said that the feng shui of the cemetery is not good and the tomb needs to be broken.
Unexpectedly, on the day of moving the tomb, strange things happened frequently.
First, a ghost-headed snake appeared in the cemetery and was cut in two, laying the foundation for disaster;
Then dark clouds came over the city on the road and heavy rain poured down.
The Korean saying is that if cremated on a rainy day, the deceased cannot be reincarnated and gain happiness.
So the coffin could only be put aside temporarily. Someone secretly pried open the coffin at night, and the evil wind spread and caused harm to the world. A story like
is reminiscent of Lin Zhengying's zombie movies, and it doesn't seem to have much surprise.
Let’s look at the characters again.
The tomb-breaking team consists of four people, each with their own characteristics.
Veteran actor Choi Min-sik plays the role of Kim Sang-deok, the number one Feng Shui master. Every time he goes to a cemetery, he will squat down and take a bite of the soil in the cemetery to judge the good or bad luck of the cemetery.
Although there is no scientific basis, it feels very reliable.
Actress Kim Go-eun plays the role of the sorceress Hwarim who soothes the souls of the dead. There is a sharp contrast between South Korea's most powerful sorceress and the cold-faced Hei Jangzhi.
The way she appears is by blowing a wizard's whistle.
also has no scientific basis, but its aloof style comes out.
By the way, Kim Go-eun lived in Beijing for 10 years when he was a child, and he has the spirit of Mr. Jing who is not stingy.
The remaining two people are tool people.
One is the embalmer Gao Ronggen, who specializes in dirty work;
The other is the novice wizard Fengji, who together with the witch and wizard form the CP of beautiful and handsome men.
The character setting is quite satisfactory, not much different from the combination of Hu Bayi, Shirley Yang, Fatty Wang and Da Jinya in "Ghost Blowing the Lamp".
Some writers said, give me a hundred plots, rather than give me one detail.
What really impresses people is the details.
Let’s take a closer look at the details of this film.
The first climax is the real and fake Feng Shui master.
After the coffin was stolen, various strange things happened.
The client was talking to Feng Shui master Lao Jin on the phone, and there was an urgent knock on the door from Lao Jin.
One told him to open the door quickly, and the other refused to let him open the door.
Who is the real Feng Shui master?
The client was asked by Lao Jin on the phone to open the window. The moment he opened the window, he woke up as if from a dream.
Ghosts cannot enter the house unless invited. The person on the phone is that ghost!
This scene makes people sweat.
The second climax is the vertical coffin.
After the ancestors were cremated, the chaos did not disappear.
The tomb-breaking team returned to the cemetery and found that there was another coffin under the previous coffin, and it was a vertical coffin.
There is a description in Lin Zhengying's movie that "if the ancestors are buried vertically, the descendants will be prosperous".
But in ancient China, the coffins of princes, generals and ministers were usually buried on the dragon's veins, and vertical burials could not draw pulses. The fate of this vertical coffin was unpredictable, which made the film the second climax.
The film also integrates funeral culture into horror films.
For example, using glutinous rice to ward off evil spirits.
Glutinous rice is filled with yang energy after being exposed to the sun, which can resist cold and cold things. When placed around the coffin, it can drive away evil spirits;
Salt and horse blood also have similar functions.
After relocating the grave, the witches and wizards will wear strange costumes and perform shamanic rituals while chanting words, which is similar to the Chinese dancing god.
The movie also uses the concept of yin and yang and the five elements. In the final climax scene, the protagonist uses the "wood to defeat fire" method to defeat the big boss.
But when it comes to handling ghosts and monsters, the director can be called a stitch monster.
In the film, after the person is possessed by the devil, his neck is deflected 180 degrees. This is a classic scene in Western horror films;
When trying to ward off evil spirits, they will write scriptures on their faces and bodies. This is another The oriental horror aesthetic is reminiscent of Kobayashi Masaki's " Ghost Story ".
An example of the merging of things is also reflected in the description of ghosts.
The first part of the video focuses on describing the "invisible ghost". Director
uses images such as the dark shadow in the mirror, the shadow in the corner, and the flashing black spots in the eyes to describe a scary ghost.
Invisible ghosts are the most terrifying. These are the ghosts of the East.
But in the second half of the film, a "visible ghost" appeared.
The ghost's appearance, movements, and expressions are all displayed in front of the audience in detail, and even the process of catching and fighting ghosts is clearly explained to you.
has a nose and eyes, this is a Western ghost.
It can be seen from this that there are many details in this film, but it has both things and things mixed with each other, giving people the feeling of a hodgepodge.
To put it simply, "The Tomb" is a hodgepodge.
The process of watching the movie is as follows;
At the beginning, you thought it was a ghost movie;
In the middle, the ghost actually ran out on his own, and the movie changed. It became a monster movie.
Just when you were confused, it mutated again and turned into an anti-Japanese film.
At this point, the director has come up with a clear picture and talks about the hatred between the country and the family.
It turned out that there were two coffins in the strange unknown grave.
In the horizontal coffin above, there lies a traitor.
He served as the vice chairman of the Central Advisory Committee of North Korea at that time, and later defected to Japan and gained glory and wealth. However, he was cursed and his descendants took the blame for his evil deeds.
In the vertical coffin below, lies the general who was beheaded in the Battle of Sekigahara, Japan, and also after Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In the eyes of Koreans, this is the embodiment of Japanese militarism.
How are the two coffins connected?
There is a prophecy in the video: The fox cuts off the tiger's waist.
This fox refers to the fox demon Onmyoji.
Who is this tiger?
When we spread out the map, we will find that the entire Korean Peninsula is a lying tiger, and its waist is near the 38th parallel.
For Chinese audiences, this statement is too unreasonable.
But for Korean audiences, it can be deeply empathetic.
Because there has been an urban legend circulating in South Korea, the Japanese army used the name of surveying and mapping to insert 300 iron pillars at key points on the Korean Peninsula, completely cutting off the lifeblood of the Korean Peninsula.
The Korean people later spontaneously formed an organization and launched a pile pulling plan to pull out the pillars one by one. However, history could no longer be changed. The invisible iron nail also became a hidden pain in the hearts of the entire Korean people.
The location where the knife was inserted in the video happens to be Mount Seorak, known as the "backbone of North Korea", near the 38th parallel.
After understanding this metaphor, the style of the film immediately became grand and grand.
In fact, many details have been explained before.
For example, when the witch appeared on the plane, the stewardess spoke Japanese to her, and she said: "I am Korean."
For example, in the film, there are foxes near the unknown grave, and the Japanese pronunciation of Master Qi Shunai is Fox, obviously this is an Onmyoji with fox blood.
For example, after the man in the film was possessed, he performed a Japanese military salute outside the window. The direction he faced was the North Korean Governor-General's Palace.
In addition, the names of the four protagonists pay tribute to the Korean independence movement. The license plate numbers appearing in the film represent Korea's Liberation Day, March 1st and the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945 respectively.
The most amazing thing is the movie poster.
The four-person tomb-breaking team faces the audience, and the blank space behind them just forms the outline of the Korean Peninsula.
At this point, the core of the mixed plot finally appeared.
The Anti-Japanese War ended and the Korean Peninsula was divided into two. The traitors were punished, but under him, the ghost of Japanese militarism was still causing harm to the world. Director
really took great pains to integrate Feng Shui culture, zombie culture, colonial history of the peninsula and patriotism into a ghost film. It is both entertaining and authorial. It is a ghost film with an alternative main theme.
The director also said that he did not want to just make a patriotic film.
Patriotism is just the background. On this basis, he wanted to film professional ethics, emphasize the significance of land, and at the same time make it easy to understand.
The idea of having both needs and wants is often a taboo in creation, and the final works usually look different.
Only "Broken Tomb" bypasses all minefields, outlines the outline of the Korean Peninsula with twists and turns, and traces back an unbearable history.
not only brought visual impact to the audience, but also caused a small inner shock.
In the past few years, domestic theme films were very popular, but they have died down in the past two years.
hopes that domestic filmmakers can work harder and shoot such a main theme movie that is both educational and entertaining.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: A Chicken
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