My blog is about horror movies from different cultures, and the first country’s culture I am exploring is South Korea. I watched two South Korean horror movies for this project: The Mimic & The Wailing.
The first movie, The Mimic, is about a woman and her family who lose their son and are struggling to come to terms with this fact. One day, the woman finds a mysterious little girl lost in the forest all by herself. The woman takes the child home to live with her and her family, no questions asked. As soon as the child is brought into the family’s home inexplicable things start to happen: the voices of your deceased love ones start speaking to you, mainly telling you to walk to this creepy cave in the forest. The strange activities happening are lost on the woman as she has transposed her guilt and longing of her lost child onto this little girl. The movie is based off on an old Korean urban legend in which the Jangsan Tiger, a man eating creature, lures victims into his trap by mimicking the sound of a woman wailing. All in all, the ending was disappointing because the woman surrenders herself to the monster when he mimics the sound of her lost child, as she could not bare the thought of losing him again (even though she knew that the sound was not her actual son). The ending of the movie symbolized the loving bond a mother has for her child and the lengths a mother would go through to have her child back in any way, shape, or form.
The second movie, The Wailing, is about a police man whose small village is turning upside-down due to a series of unsuspecting homicides and suicides when a Japanese man takes residence in the village. Matters become far too serious for the Korean police man when his little daughter begins to get sick, developing the same conditions as the people in the village who had previously killed others (or themselves). Next, the daughter shows clear signs of possession, she is a danger to others and herself and the police man struggles to find a way to save his daughter. The police man and his fellow officers piece together that all the strange activity began once the Japanese man arrived and now begin to suspect he has some sort of supernatural influence on people. The Japanese man turns out to not be human, but an evil ghost; a demon, which preys on your soul. Just as the last movie, there is no happy ending, the little girl kills her mother, grandmother, and father. The evil wins again.
Both movies had many similarities (emics) as both movies portrayed a little girl as the main character in need of saving. Also, interdependent characteristics shone through, such as the fact that that there was never one main character solely fighting the evil spirit and saving the day. To the contrary, both movies portrayed teamwork when trying to fight against the evil. Other emics of the South Korean culture included the character of a shaman, a person that has access to the world of good and evil spirits, as well as the beautiful portrayal of the Korean countryside; lush green forests, mountains, and rivers were frequently displayed throughout both movies. Another aspect concerning the family dynamic was present in both movies; a great amount of respect for the grandmother which can be seen as filial piety. Overall, both movies were quite interesting, I enjoyed the eastern take and customs portrayed in the movies. I give both movies a 3 on a scary scale, 1 being the least scary and 5 being the most scary.
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