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Hallyu Wiki explainers · Hallyu Wiki editors · Updated 2026-10-13

Exhuma explained: shamanism, geomancy, and the history behind the film

What the title means, the daesalgut and pungsu-jiri, fact versus belief in the colonial "iron stake" story, the independence-activist names, and the film's record — drawn from 16 sources.

Exhuma (2024) is an occult mystery from Jang Jae-hyun, director of The Priests and Svaha: The Sixth Finger, starring Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jin and Lee Do-hyun as a geomancer, shamans and an undertaker. It opened on February 22, 2024, passed 10 million admissions on its 32nd day and became the first occult film to do so in Korea. The story begins when a wealthy Korean family living in the United States is plagued by a hereditary affliction; two shamans trace it to an ancestor's grave, and with a geomancer and an undertaker they go to dig it up on a remote Korean mountainside.

International viewers most often ask what the title means, what shamans and their rituals are, how pungsu (Korean geomancy) works, and whether the colonial-era "iron stake" story is real history. This explainer answers those questions, with a source number on every claim, while staying within the first half of the plot. Later twists appear only in the final "Spoiler warning" section.

TermMeaningHow the film uses it
Pamyo (exhumation)Opening a grave, usually to relocate or cremate the remainsThe title and the inciting act. Jang says about 80 percent of exhumations happen because land is sold or redeveloped, while the rest dig up something that was wrong to begin with — which he saw as a journey into the past.2,3
Mudang (shaman)A religious specialist who serves spirits and leads gut ritualsKim Go-eun's Hwa-rim and Lee Do-hyun's Bong-gil are mudang. Jang says he made them young because many shamans peak in their 30s and 40s, and successful ones tend to be young and stylish.4,8
Spirit-chosen shaman / guardian spiritA shaman who becomes one after a spirit illness and an initiation rite, and the spirit that first descends on themHwa-rim is portrayed as a shaman who takes deities into her body. Jang explains that before a rite the shaman must first receive a deity and "transform."4,8
Gut (shamanic ritual)A shamanic ritual led by a mudangJang says the film has three ritual sequences with distinct purposes: the daesalgut, a soul-summoning rite, and a "goblin play" drawn from Jeju shamanism.4,8
DaesalgutA rite in which an offering takes death in a person's place; usually called tasalgutUsed as a defensive rite to protect the workers at the dig. Jang says shamans told him "daesalgut" was an acceptable name, so he used it.3,4
Pungsu (Korean geomancy)A theory that reads human fortune from the shape of the landChoi Min-sik's Sang-deok is a geomancer. Jang notes that the common word "jigwan" was a Joseon-era official title and that "pungsu-jirisa" is more accurate.3,9
Myeongdang (auspicious site)The ideal site in geomancyWhether the grave sits on good or bad ground is the story's first question; Hwa-rim tells the family the ancestor is angry at being buried on bad land.5,10
Iron stakeThe story that Japan drove iron stakes into mountain energy points to sever Korea's vitalityThe film's core motif; one character says 99 percent of the stakes are fake, and another asks, "What about the one percent?" See the iron-stake section below.3,7

The title and pungsu: why a grave's location matters

The Korean title, Pamyo, means digging up a grave to relocate or cremate the remains — traditionally a way to correct misfortune blamed on a badly sited tomb. Jang says he watched more than 15 exhumations and consulted geomancers, morticians and shamans while preparing the film. Pungsu-jiri reads human fortune from the shape of the land, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes folk tales in which burying a parent on an auspicious site brings blessings to descendants, either at once or generations later. According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, Joseon royals and modern politicians alike weighed geomancy when choosing tomb sites, and Queen Myeongseong moved her father's grave four times. In the same article, Ahn Young-bae, a former Dong-A Ilbo journalist with a doctorate in geomancy, says the scene of the geomancer tasting soil is there for the camera; real practitioners rely on knowledge and experience. He also explains the line about foxes near graves: foxes burrow, so people once feared they would disturb the tomb.

2,3,5,9,10

Shamans and gut: what is the daesalgut?

A mudang is a religious specialist who serves spirits and leads gut rituals. Spirit-chosen shamans, who receive a deity through an initiation rite after a spirit illness, have been concentrated in central and northern Korea; hereditary shamans, whose role passes through families, mainly in the south. Of the film's signature daesalgut, Jang explains that it is a rite usually called tasalgut, in which an offering dies in place of a person when the messenger of death arrives, and that shamans told him "daesalgut" was an acceptable name. He describes it as a defensive rite rather than a curse: the shaman first takes a deity into her body to protect herself, then protects the workers. Because a four-hour rite had to fit into five minutes, Kim Go-eun rehearsed for a full day at her shaman instructor's home, and the scene was shot in a single day with four cameras. Jang says Kim and Lee Do-hyun went to many real rituals together, and that Kim mastered the difficult words of the chants and the shamans' particular delivery.

3,4,8

The iron stake story: between record and belief

The film's motif is the "geomantic invasion" theory: that Japan drove iron stakes into Korea's mountain energy points to sever the nation's vitality. The belief fed a civilian hunt for stakes in the 1980s, and one climbing club donated 15 stakes found on Mount Bukhan to the Independence Hall of Korea in April 1985. In 1995, ahead of the 50th anniversary of liberation, the Home Ministry announced a nationwide removal drive, making it a Kim Young-sam government project. A competing explanation holds that many stakes sit at triangulation points from Japan's colonial land survey, and some reports say they were 1920s trail markers. The JoongAng Sunday concluded that neither side has produced clear evidence, and historian Minsoo Kang writes that scholars have found no documentary evidence of any Japanese plan to harm Korea through geomancy. The idea of pinning down a land's energy with stakes is also older than colonial rule: the Annals of King Jeongjo (1797) record the king blaming a lack of talent on stakes left by a Ming Taoist, and Korean folklore has many "severed vein" tales blaming Chinese generals, Japanese or government troops. Jang himself says he does not know whether the stakes existed, which is why he wrote the line "Ninety-nine percent are fake — so what about the one percent?" In short, Japan's colonial surveying and land survey are documented history; the reading of the stakes as a geomantic plot against Korea's spirit remains a popular belief without confirmed evidence.

3,5,6,7,9

Independence history hidden in names and license plates

The four leads are named after real independence activists. According to the Seoul Shinmun, Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik), Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun), Ko Young-geun (Yoo Hae-jin), Yoon Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun) and the supporting shamans Oh Gwang-sim and Park Ja-hye all carry activists' names. The real Lee Hwa-rim helped Yoon Bong-gil get through tight security for his 1932 attack in Shanghai's Hongkou Park. Yeong-geun's "Uiyeol Funeral Services" sign recalls the Uiyeoldan, a secret anti-colonial group, and the temple name Boguksa ("protecting the nation") and its abbot Wonbong recall the group's leader Kim Won-bong. The license plates follow suit: Sang-deok's car reads 0815 (Liberation Day), Hwa-rim and Bong-gil's 0301 (the March 1st Movement), and Yeong-geun's hearse 1945 (the year of liberation). Jang says a visit to the Independence Hall made him realize how many activists he did not know, so he revived their names, choosing ones that sounded right.

3,11

The record: admissions, awards, overseas release, the Oscars

Exhuma passed 10 million admissions on March 24, 2024, its 32nd day in theaters — the first 2024 release to do so, the 32nd film ever to reach the mark in Korea and the 23rd Korean film. Before its domestic release it premiered on February 16 in the Forum section of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival. According to the Korean Film Council's 2024 report, it finished with 11.91 million admissions and 115.2 billion won in revenue, the year's top film. At the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards (May 2024) it won four film awards — Best Director (Jang Jae-hyun), Best Actress (Kim Go-eun), Best New Actor (Lee Do-hyun) and the technical award for sound (Kim Byung-in) — while the film Grand Prize went to 12.12: The Day. At the 45th Blue Dragon Film Awards (November 2024) it also won Best Director, Best Actress (Kim Go-eun), Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography and Lighting. Abroad, it was sold to 133 countries; in Indonesia it overtook Parasite as the highest-grossing Korean film, and in Vietnam it set an opening-weekend record for a Korean release. Korea's submission for the 97th Academy Awards' International Feature Film category, however, was 12.12: The Day, chosen unanimously, not Exhuma.

1,12,13,14,15,16

Spoiler warning: the second half and the stake as a symbol

This section covers the second half. Jang says that showing a real iron stake would have felt too jingoistic, and its existence cannot be confirmed, so he chose a symbol to stand in for it. He describes fusing a symbol of Japanese imperial and militarist aggression with a samurai spirit to represent the stake, hoping that pulling it out might heal the land's wounds. That spirit is written as an eight-cheok-tall warrior who fought in the Imjin War and at Sekigahara. He also brought the five elements, the basis of geomancy, into the final confrontation, framing Hwa-rim and Bong-gil as yin-yang and Sang-deok and Yeong-geun as the five elements. The stake hunt is set at Hyangnobong in Goseong, Gangwon Province — the spot every geomancer he asked named — the northernmost point of the Baekdudaegan ridge reachable from the South. Jang said he tried not to emphasize anti-Japanese sentiment, though some critics at release accused the film of stoking it.

3,7

Related articles

Exhuma Choi Min-sik Kim Go-eun Yoo Hae-jin Lee Do-hyun Baeksang Arts Awards Cinema of Korea

Sources

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“Exhuma explained: shamanism, geomancy, and the history behind the film.” Hallyu Wiki. https://hallyu.wiki/en/guides/exhuma-explained/ (Retrieved 2026-10-13).

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