The most popular horror movie in recent times is none other than the Korean movie "Tomb" . After
was released in South Korea in February this year, the film topped the box office for 39 consecutive days, with a total of more than 11.78 million viewers, breaking the box office record set by " Train to Busan " and becoming the highest-grossing horror thriller in Korean film history. Movie.
At the Beijing International Film Festival that just ended last month, the film was screened in the "Carnival·Midnight Screening" section, and it even reached the point where it was "hard to get a ticket." After it was released on streaming media, domestic horror film lovers rushed to watch it. In just one week, more than 75,000 netizens rated it on Douban - 6.8, which is better than 90% of horror films and 82% of thrillers.
What is the charm of "Broken Tomb" that can achieve great results and be so valued by everyone? Let’s talk about it today.
"Broken Tomb" has assembled a good cast, including veteran actors such as Choi Min-sik and Yoo Hae-jin, as well as Kim Go-eun and Lee Dae-hyun with good looks. But what's most attractive about it is director Zhang Zaixian's ability to control horror films. Zhang Zaixian is a notoriously low-yield director who always insists on working slowly and carefully. In his ten years in the industry, he has only directed three feature films, "The Black Priests", "Sabha" and "The Tomb".
These three movies are all horror movies, and their creative styles are quite unified. The most obvious point is that their titles are all related to religion and folk customs, which can create a very intuitive curiosity in people.
What is "broken tomb"? To put it simply, the tomb is broken open, the original burial coffin is dug out, the grave is moved, or cremated, so that the soul of the deceased can rest in peace. As the name suggests, the movie "Broken Tomb" tells a story related to a cemetery. The film involves witches and gods, shamans, dance masters, Five Elements Bagua, heavenly stems and earthly branches and other oriental folk culture, which can easily make Chinese audiences feel familiar.
As a horror film, the story of "The Tomb" is obviously divided into two parts. The whole film uses chapter narrative , and is divided into six chapters: the first three chapters look a bit like folk horror movies; the last three chapters suddenly change, and the ghosts in the movie turn into entities, imitating Hong Kong zombie movies . The story in
begins with an exorcism commission. The wizards Hualin and Bongji went to Los Angeles to help a Korean rich man solve a problem. The rich man's child cries all the time when he is born. What's even more bizarre is that both the rich man and his father suffered from the same mental distress. Their family seemed to be cursed.
Hua Lin could tell at a glance that it was the tomb style of the rich man’s ancestors that was causing trouble. To put it bluntly, it means that the ancestors who have been laid to rest are not feeling well and are losing their temper in their graves.
In order to help the rich family solve their problems and get a high reward, Hualin decided to return to South Korea and formed an alliance with Feng Shui master Kim Sang-deok and mortician Gao Rong-gen to move the family's tomb together. Hua Lin, Bong Gil, Kim Sang Deok, and Ko Jung Geun also form the protagonist group of this film.
The ancestors of the wealthy family were buried on a mountain top in Gangwon Province, South Korea. After arriving at the top of the mountain, everyone suddenly discovered that the top of the mountain was not a geomantic treasure at all, but an extremely sinister and gloomy place that was not suitable for burial at all. This made the most senior Jin Shangde shudder. At first Jin Shangde refused to break the tomb, but Hua Lin Xiaozhi used profit and moved him with emotion, and finally convinced Jin Shangde. And as the Tomb Breaking unfolds, a series of unexpected disasters also follow...
The biggest feature of "Tomb Breaking" is that it breaks the audience's expectations for horror movies. The director did not use too many jump scares to frighten the audience, but slowly advanced the film to make people feel a deeper malice. For example, after the tomb was broken, the coffin of a wealthy family was opened due to greed, and the spirit body of the ancestor was accidentally released. The spirit body was filled with resentment, so it sought out the descendants and wanted to take them away one by one.
The story extends here, revealing the troubled past of our ancestors. It turns out that the rich man's ancestor was a traitor and was loyal to the Japanese during the Japanese colonial period.After the liberation of Korea, not only were the ancestors not punished, but their descendants also traveled across the ocean, took root in the United States, and lived a pampered life, becoming a perfect portrayal of the "Golden Belt of Murder and Arson." From this level, "Broken Tomb" actually continues the critical realism that Korean film and television is good at.
During the narration process, "Broken Tomb" also mixed many classic horror settings. For example, the shot of the rich man turning his head 180 degrees when he died is a tribute to the classic horror film "The Exorcist". The "beautiful snake" killed by a shovel is derived from the image of a water monster in Japanese ghost stories. Exorcism props such as salt, horse blood, and glutinous rice are borrowed from Hong Kong zombie movies. The setting of writing Chinese characters on people's faces and bodies first originated from " Kaidan " directed by Masaki Kobayashi. This creative method of combining Chinese and Western elements gives the film an , neither earthy nor foreign, temperament.
In addition, the scene scheduling of "Broken Tomb" is also very outstanding, and the audio-visual control is quite exploratory. When the spirit body appeared in the first half of the film, the director used a lot of images reflected in mirrors to form a certain kind of reflection, thereby achieving a kind of retributive displeasure of cause and effect.
In order to create a thrilling atmosphere, the lighting in the film has always been gloomy and dim. In one scene, accompanied by the scream of a baby, a rotating camera surrounds the helpless rich man, and then transitions to a deep tunnel, bringing out the unknowability of the plot, and the lens grafting is very innovative.
From this, it is not difficult for us to find that "The Tomb" is not a pure horror film. The director has great ambitions and wants to express a lot. Later, with the discovery of the "stacked tombs", the values of the entire story were elevated to a higher level - anti-Japanese, patriotism .
The so-called "stacked tombs" mean that there are tombs under the tombs. Under the coffin of the rich ancestor, there is also a vertical coffin buried deep. The history of this vertical coffin can be traced back to the shogunate period. The Japanese buried it here with the purpose of "the fox cutting off the tiger's waist". In other words, the Japanese made a Feng Shui bureau here to destroy South Korea's national destiny.
The plot took a turn for the worse and began to move in the direction of the main theme: the "Grave Breaking Team" fights against monsters, no longer for personal gain, but to protect the place for future generations to live together. So if you look at the whole film, you will find that "Tomb" is a problem of war legacy that has nested into the structure of a horror film.
This setting has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it can greatly arouse the emotions of Korean audiences and remind everyone of the 35-year humiliating history (during the Japanese occupation of Korea, 1910-1945); the disadvantage is that the plots of the first part and the second part are obviously separated. , the later "increased value" came unexpectedly.
What is horrifying is that the "iron needle" Feng Shui bureau involved in the film is not a complete fabrication, but comes from real history. It is said that in order to destroy the roots of the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese inserted more than 300 iron piles in Feng Shui key points across the peninsula under the guise of surveying and mapping. Thirteen of them are inserted in the Joseon Palace. So in the eyes of Koreans, the "Chinese Blue House Curse" that caused many people in power to end badly was due to these iron piles.
The director inserted a lot of details into the film to allude to and accuse that period of history. The names of several positive characters correspond to several famous Korean anti-Japanese martyrs: Ko Young-geun corresponds to the politician Ko Yong-geun; Kim Sang-deok corresponds to the independence activist Kim Se-deok; Bong-gil corresponds to the Korean anti-Japanese martyr Yun Bong-gil; Hwarim corresponds to the independence activist Lee Hwa-rim; Yuanfeng, the abbot of Fuguo Temple, corresponds to Jin Yuanfeng, the leader of the Yi Lie Regiment.
Even the license plate number in the film has an ulterior motive. Gao Ronggen's license plate is "1945" and Kim Sang-deok's license plate is "0815". The combination of the two corresponds to the same date - August 15, 1945. This day is the day when Korea regained its independence from colonial rule. August 15th every year is South Korea's "Liberation Day", which is equivalent to our National Day. Hualin's license plate number "0301" refers to the "March First Movement", a large-scale national liberation movement that broke out on the Korean Peninsula under Japanese colonial rule on March 1, 1919.
At this point, the creative intention of the film is clearly visible, it is a proper "anti-Japanese film" . From the individual to society to history, the film progresses step by step, completing advanced expressions of creativity and depth. Although the twist in the later period is a bit abrupt, for a horror film, its expression is really rare.
At the same time, it also points out a new possibility for the narrative of family and country to Asian horror film creators.
This makes people curious, after zombies, religion, folklore, and history, what else is there that Koreans dare not take pictures of? Where will their horror films go next? Everything is full of infinite possibilities. Let us look forward to, sigh with emotion, and envy.
Gang Zan'er
editor in charge Chai Yingrui
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