ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION (Not Review) – Understanding ‘The Wailing’
Beauty and devastation, that’s what I was left with once the credits rolled. Just like the shot of the corpse hanging from a tree, in the middle of the road. Or the scene where the devil quotes Jesus.
The film isn’t visually scary, but its unresolved nature and the kind of philosophical questions it poses, they haunting in a different way altogether. All this done in the most spectacular and captivating 150 minutes, without a single wasted second. After two terrific thrillers (‘Chaser’ and ‘The Yellow Sea’), Na Hong-Jin’s first foray into horror, and we already have a masterpiece.
What’s the origin of evil and how does it consume/infect people? Temptation or bad influence can turn one against their loved ones. The film treats violence itself as a communicable disease. The zombie-like murdering sickness is akin to losing one’s soul. Jong-goo mother asks in one of the beginning scenes, “What kind of fucker kills people?”; it’s an opinion Na deeply shares. Though the film revolves around random violent deeds committed by various individuals, it’s interesting to note that all the violence happens offscreen; Na is more interested in the motivations, consequences and moral dilemmas. Fear and desperation can make people do terrible things. He highlights that few actions are objectively bad, even if one tries to justify them at the moment through rationality and causality (like the way Jong-goo and his friends kill The Jap). He also condemns blind faith and the actions people take driven by it. The way he makes his point about not believing things recounted by unreliable sources is hilariously thought-provoking; the priest asks Jong-goo, “Did you see with your own eyes? How can you be so sure without seeing for yourself?”
Christian symbolism is littered throughout the film: Use of fishes, goats and locusts. 12 deaths (number of apostles). 7 possessions (number of deadly sins). I’ll mention more of them whenever they relate to my observations. Situations from ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Evil Dead’, ‘Prisoners’, ‘Contagion’ do come to mind, but the film is a beast in itself. And to set the atmosphere, though CSI is mentioned, modern science is deliberately kept outside of the film’s environment. The camera is supposed to represent capturing of souls; many old faiths have this superstition towards photographs being taken.
The first act of the film deals with a lot of xenophobia. The way people live in a misinformed reality formed by their echo chambers, rife with rumours and stereotypes, it becomes easy to assign blame on an unknown entity with bad ancestral history (taking into account, early 20th century Japanese colonialism and subsequent mistrust). It also explores how legends, stories and personal experiences shape the way we think about the world around us and informs our actions.
The film starts off deceptively simple, with bumbling cops solving unusual murders in a rain-drenched town (not unlike the premise of ‘Memories of Murder’). The film’s name as well as the town’s name, is ‘Gokseong’, meaning ‘wailing’ (literally translates to ‘the sound of crying’). Even with crazy things happening around, the humour balances things off and eases us into the environment. It maintains a confident tone throughout, while efficiently blending tropes of cop thriller, possession horror and family drama. But then the jokes become less frequent as we, along with the lead protagonist Jong-goo, are thrown into a world of chaos and ambiguity.
When unfathomable, inexplicable things happen to your loved ones, how do you make sense of it, and how do you cope with it? I liked how Na uses fishing metaphor to explain the randomness of misfortune. Na apparently made this film after several of his close friends died in succession and he tried to find meaning as to why these things happened to them, and found very little.
Jong-goo’s dilemma and the structure of the film’s narrative, both efficiently convey the Horror of Uncertainty. We face the same questions that haunt Jong-goo – What does evil look like? What happens if one can’t distinguish good from bad, right from wrong? Na drives that terrifying thought right through our minds; it even brings morality into question.
The simultaneous exorcism scene (one of the best shown in films) shows how similar good and evil look (just the colour of the sacrificial animals were different). What better way to show this ambivalence than make a character transfigure into the devil and utter the very same words used by Jesus after his resurrection? (the film’s initial Bible quote) Is it good disguised as evil, or was it evil disguised as good all along? (The scene captures the essence of the film brilliantly; it overwhelms me every single time. Ah, and that score)
[Though I have to say, I don’t think the devil scene is supposed to be taken literally. Many of the earlier demon visions were character point-of-views or dreams; even this one occurs in the presence of a single doubting character. It’s The Jap as well as the film saying, “You wanted me to be the devil, so here I am!” And even if it was the actual devil in the scene, he might have just appeared in that moment through The Jap. Or it was God himself, outraged at the deacon’s misjudgement.]
The film was essentially born in the editing room, with the director cutting out chunks which might have made the story clearer, thus allowing multiple interpretations. No matter how many times one re-watches the film and studies the scenes, there just isn’t enough information for one to firmly assert a singular conclusion. The film is a perfect example of selection/confirmation bias; it demonstrates the mind’s ability to perceive “truth” in nearly anything. Without proper evidence or enough information, two events that happen to coincide can’t be classified as ’cause’ and ‘effect’; that’s one of the central themes of the film.
Let’s examine few of the major interpretations of good and evil in the film. It’s by no accident that the three Shamans/Ghosts are played by an old man, a young man and a woman – reference to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – the trinity. And clear Jesus parallels can be seen with two of them. While doing research on the film, Na asked himself, “Is there a God? If there is, would he be always good?” – this is important in order to understand the film.
i) The Jap, the name by which he’s derogatively referred to in the town, may have been a saviour shaman all along, who arrived in the town to get rid of the sickness or resident demon. He’s a fisherman, and Jesus famously called himself ‘fisher of men’. He’s misunderstood by the majority of the town people, killed by them, then rises again. There’s even a crying scene under the rocks in the forest which is reminiscent of Jesus crying in Gethsemane. That would make the female shaman/ghost, Moo-myeong (translates as ‘no name’), the resident spirit (good or evil depending on her mood). She can tempt, test, curse, punish and reward whoever she likes.
This interpretation even works as a sharp socio-political allegory. Moo-myeong is a direct reference to South Korea’s current president, Park Geun-hye, who has strong links to shamanism through the Eternal Life Church and her advisor Choi Soon-sil, the instigator of the latest scandal that has led to her impeachment trial. So, in the same way, Moo-myeong is manipulating people (through rumours and dreams) to distrust the foreigner and oust him. We never see The Jap doing anything bad. The only time he’s seen performing a ritual was to counter her spell (on the zombie). The devil-reveal scene would seem to imply that racism makes targeted people seem like monsters. The only one who seems to realize the truth is Hyo-jin, Jong-goo daughter, who symbolizes the children in general. At one point after shouting, she even mumbles, “You don’t even know what’s important.”
In this scenario, Il-Gwang is just a petty money-minded shaman who comes to town, interprets the situation wrongly, tries to cast the death hex on the wrong shaman, realizes it later and warns Jong-goo until it’s too late.
ii) The Jap and Il-Gwang, both are shamans under the control of an evil spirit. In the opening scene, The Jap uses two hooks for the worm (bait), symbolizing the two are working together. They wear the same loincloth, have similar rituals, capture souls by taking photographs. Il-Gwang is shown to drive on the left side of the road (like that of Japan, not South Korea). Both are shown to be scared of Moo-myeong. They go from place to place, curse people, possess their souls and offer it to the devil. [The Jap owns a hell-hound] That would make Moo-myeong the town’s guardian spirit, and the film shows the war between these two sides. She symbolizes purity through the scene where she’s continuously pelting stones at the officers; Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone.” During the double ritual scene, another one is happening simultaneously (which isn’t shown), done by Moo-myeong to cast off the evil spirit possessing The Jap; the way The Jap gets hurt doesn’t correspond to Il-Gwang’s hex (check the editing). So when The Jap is killed by the road, he was just a regular shaman (not possessed); after his death, the evil spirit regains control over him. She guides and helps Jong-goo throughout; others too, since we see the snapdragons at the scene of the first murder as well. She even tests Jong-goo’s faith at the last crucial moment, but he fails, just like Peter (who denied Jesus thrice before the rooster crowed). She was protecting Jong-goo’s family all along, but once Jong-goo sinned (by committing murder), she wasn’t able to help him explicitly. She laid a trap as a last resort, but the sinner had to be kept outside and faith had to be tested.
iii) All three of them are powerful ghosts competing with each other to collect and offer more souls to a higher spirit, in order to extend their life and power. The mysterious murdering-sickness can be someone or something else’s doing, and these three are there in order to acquire more souls for themselves, and foil the chances of the other two. We see different photographs of the afflicted people in both The Jap and Il-Gwang’s possession.
iv) All three are powerful ghosts in their own right (a blend of God and Devil). They generally try to save people from harm or an evil spirit’s possession. But sometimes, when they themselves get angry at someone (because of certain laws not being followed), they curse them. They free the ones which have been cursed by others. Making each of them lawmaker, tempter, curser, judge and executioner. The ordeal Jong-goo goes through is an elaborate test of faith and morals, like the way Job is tested in the Bible. When he comes across a wounded, half-dead body (of The Jap) on the road (like the parable of ‘The Good Samaritan’), he discards the body instead of providing help, thus killing the person in need.
v) There’s no supernatural element at all. People are actually getting affected by a rare breed of mushrooms that makes them hallucinate and kill their loved ones. They rely on the various available beliefs to make sense of what’s going on and try to cope with them.
Even the mushrooms allude to the highly-debated psychedelic origins of Christianity (related to early traditions, fertility rites, etc.) It’s certainly intriguing to relate out-of-body experiences and meditative trance to origins of god in Judeo-Christian tradition or otherwise. [Knowing how meticulous Na is with his stories, I don’t think the mushrooms are included by accident.]
Now with these varying elements, one can come to so many varied conclusions. Who do YOU think is good/evil? – The answer to this would depend on the person’s experiences and religious belief, just like a specific omen can mean conflicting things to people from differing religions/beliefs. The film shows the conflict and confluence of ideas between Christianity, Buddhism, and Traditional Korean & Japanese Shamanism. When catastrophe strikes, fer spreads like a virus, and people are often confused in deciding whom/what to trust.
The father-daughter relationship and its inherent helplessness, and the loss of innocence are explored in a heartbreaking way.
Six years in the making, with such attention to detail, perfect casting (kudos to the freakishly brilliant child actor), spellbinding background score and sound editing, jaw-droppingly good cinematography (which makes even death look beautiful), and crisp editing, Na Hong-Jin has made one of the best horror movies of 21st century, one that truly evokes horror even in the mind of a non-believer.
Akash Sebastian 