People in my home truly love watching scary movies that will make them go all screaming their lungs out. Silly folks though because they cover their eyes the moment they think something would jump out on the screen, but that’s just me saying. I’m no brave warrior against something extremely scary, but I know when a movie’s not to that level.

A-class horror movies would make you want to run for the hills. But I dare say ‘Svaha: The Sixth Finger’ didn’t make me desire for it. I’ll delete the horror genre for you if you’re one brave human and just remind you that it’s more of a mystery, thriller, detective movie that deals with matters about faith, good and evil, cults, deaths, etc, so there will be a lot of significant symbolism and also things you won’t understand. I, for one, will admit that I’m still at a point of trying to figure out the movie while writing this.

Anyway, to give you something to think about, here are some details you should know:

The Characters

Lee Jung Jae as Pastor Park

Park Jung Min as Na-han

Lee Jae In as Geum-hwa

Jung Jin Young as Chief Hwang

Lee David as Joseph

The Story

Pastor Park works to expose suspicious religious groups. He’s hired to look into the cult group Deer Mount. Meanwhile, Police Captain Hwang investigates a murder case and the main suspect is a member of the Deer Mount cult. (wikipedia)

Review:

First, I want to say that the movie title intrigued me. I wasn’t really planning to watch this as I have a lot of things in my mind, but I ended up doing so since the kids at home demanded we watch something scary at 1 in the morning.

Anyway, setting that TMI aside, I wasn’t sure at first why the movie is titled that way, but I came to understand it as the movie explained the overall concept: Pastor Park who is after Deer Mount thinks it’s some kind of cult. He loves to expose these kinds of things so it’s pretty much some type of calling for him that he needs to know whether they are really something. His amazing guts isn’t wrong though as he discovers something even bigger the more he dug into the case. Apparently, there’s someone who had reached Buddhahood. Pastor Park doesn’t believe this person exists, but eventually he meets him. However, it’s not all that because this person who has reached immortality is actually a fake who pretended to be sacred and holy by using the name of Buddha. He thinks that through his immortality he has become one, but eventually this person had only deceived four unfortunate boys to serve him to protect him from his ‘enemy’ who will be born a hundred years later than him.

As far as symbolism goes, this is when you’ll question who the real good and evil is. Because the movie started by introducing Geum Hwa’s twin as something evil, so everyone feared her. She was locked up in a storage space and was in shackles to prevent her from escaping. Dogs in cages were everywhere around her own prison. She cries at night–sometimes sounding more like a baby, a child, a girl seeking for help. And her grandmother prayed and asked for penance whenever this happened. I have believed that the child is really evil as she’s in such a state that people would really deem her a monster.

Je Seok who deems himself an immortal god, on the other hand, is a debatable subject. It’s clear that there’s something up with this character, but you just don’t know at first whether he’s good or evil. Still, if you smell something fishy about him, you are most likely right.

Anyway, because of Je Seok’s idealism and belief that someone is after him, that’s the reason why he fooled four juveniles to work for him (as guardians of the fake Buddha – him) to kill 81 girls born in Jeong Wol (where he was born) in the year 1999. One of those girls that were left was Geum Hwa and her twin (who wasn’t registered). So, being guardians, they all carry on killing all those girls to eliminate the threat, when in fact it’s a pointless witch hunt, because there was truly no evil among the girls (as the movie explained).

Pastor Park and his companion eventually realizes this at the ending arch. During Christmas time, he reminisces the story of how in order for child Jesus to be born, Herod had to kill many sons that night. The analysis between that story and this movie is made to point out that: Je Seok who calls himself the immortal buddha is in fact Herod who pretended to be an almighty King and sought to have it remain that way by eliminating any possible threat to his power; and then Geum Hwa’s twin is actually a representation of Buddha.

Many conflicting factors made me wonder if Geum Hwa’s twin is really good, like when she fed on Geum Hwa’s leg in the womb of their mother, or how her wails sounded like an attempt to deceive someone, or how snakes crawl out from her prison, or how she could summon rats and dark-feathered birds, but then if I will focus more on the intention of the character, I find the twin’s role very symbolic in a good way.

And this is my theory about Geum Hwa’s twin: I’m not sure what it meant that the twin had to bite Geum Hwa’s leg, but perhaps she came out into this world looking like that as she must have been cursed by Je Seok. Je Seok was so threatened by someone greater coming into this world that he prayed for her misery and so the twin lived a miserable life, not loved by anyone and feared by her own family. But then, no matter how Geum Hwa feared her, she never intended to hurt Geum Hwa. She must have loved Geum Hwa and this showed with the way how she even protected her from Na Han (King Gwangmok) by summoning birds to lure him to her instead. Geum Hwa must have hated and loved her sister, so she made Na Han go to her twin to save herself. But at the end of the day, her twin ended up saving her by revealing her true self to Na Han and enlightening him of Je Seok’s true nature. Additionally, the ultimate proof of her good nature can be realized upon her death. At the beginning of the story, the twin was said to die soon, but she persisted and lived for as long as Geum Hwa did. Everyone in the family hated that they had to live for a long time with a monster like her, so Geum Hwa only realized her twin sister’s value when it’s already too late. The twin died in her arms at the same time Je Seok died.

So, that’s for me. I’m not 100% sure about what I just thought of, but that’s how I interpreted parts of the story. I think that there’s more to the symbolism in the movie than meets the eye, but most likely it’s centered in Christianity and Buddhism. There was so much hype about this being a horror or thriller, but eventually you will learn that it’s more than that. A deeper meaning regarding our faith is buried deep in this movie and I guess that’s what this movie is trying to make us ponder on. And that’s what amazes me about this movie.

On the other hand, I can’t deny that I started to get hyped up during the beginning of the story as it reflected some elements from ‘The Wailing’ which is pretty similar, just like the deep symbolic meanings, but I lost the hype when I felt the slow pacing, too many characters and their circumstances that doesn’t easily tie up at the beginning and middle of the movie and also the underwhelming revelation at the end. I’m so curious about the twin sister and also Je Seok, but they were all not fleshed out well that the attack didn’t make up for a good result. I like the main lead’s acting and also the actress who portrayed Geum Hwa, but the characters itself doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

Still, kudos to this movie for the stunning visuals and history behind its overall plot. Those pretty much give way for a good production. It’s just that the movie has a lot of rooms to improve on in order for it to be even more intriguing.

Rating:

Overall, I’m not a prick and truly appreciate the engaging mystery and amazement it has brought me while teaching about different concepts about faith and belief, so I’ll give it a 4.0 out of 5.0.