Exhuma: International Exorcisms

Anyone who believe that just because I've watched all the Omen movies — including the laughable made-for-TV fourquel, the 2024 prequel, and the 2016 series Damien — means I'm a sucker for most movies involving demon possession would be... 100% correct. And so when my boyfriend asked me what Korean movie I wanted to watch next, once Exhuma had been presented as an option, I was deaf to every other candidate, awards be damned. Director-writer Jang Jae-hyun apparently shares my obsession: His 2015 fright flick The Priests concerns two holymen investigate a potential demonic assault; his 2019 follow-up concerns a cult tied to serial murders.

With Exhuma, the horror auteur largely ditches Christianity for homegrown shamanism to great effect. Choi Min-sik plays a geomancer enlisted by a matrilineal shaman (Kim Go-eun) to exorcise a familial spirit whose tormenting his descendants, across the Pacific and across three generations (including the newborn heir). The feng shui of burial gets complicated when these two and their two wingmen (Yoo Hae-jin and Lee Do-hyun) unearth a casket too big for a human and wrapped in barbed wire. What happens next? Hell breaks loose — with a decidedly Japanese pedigree. And so Korea's efforts to get Japanese to leave them alone now extends to the spirit world too.

The Secret Mission: Mal-Mo-E: Word Gathering

Language reflects culture, as writer-director Eom Yu-na's The Secret Mission thrllingly points out. The story of the creation of a Korean-language dictionary in defiance of Japanese rule, this historical film turns what might've been a very dusty topic — the collection of words, definitions, and regionalisms into a stirring rally cry not only for Korean independence but for the very existence of different cultures as reflections of ways of being and thinking worldwide. It's also a buddy pic in which uptight scholar Ryoo Jeong-hwan (Yoon Kye-sang), and illiterate single father Kim Pan-soo (Yoo Hae-jin) must get over their differences to acchieve the greater good.

Once they've ironed out their difference, they've got help, thankfully: a drunkard poet (Woo Hyeon), an old teacher (Kim Hong-pa), a woman (Kim Sun-young) with her husband in prison, a man with his wife in prison, and all Pan-soo friends from prison, too. Unfortunately, their leader's dad is a traitorous professor who's aligned himself with the conquerors. Don't worry: He'll get his! A sub-plot involving Pan-soo's kids — Soon-hee (Park Ye-na) and (Deok-jin) Jo Hyun-do — leads to some serious tears at the end. Why? Watch the movie and find out. You'll cry but it's worth it.

Be With You: Stormy Weather for the Win

The romance Be With You isn't labeled as scif but it could be. It's a time traveling tearjerker in which an amnesiac mother (Son Ye-jin) comes back from the dead, only to fall back in love with her husband (So Ji-seob) and child (Kim Ji-hwan) again. The rebirth of affection for the kid is easy to understand: He's quick, conscientious, loving, and adorable. The return of warm feelings for the dad is tougher to fathom. He seems to be cursed with bad luck, made worse by an inability to act responsibly despite being the sole caregiver for their orphaned child. Upon returning to earth, she might've been better off being smitten with her husband's best friend, a baker (Ko Chang-seok) with a better job and a sweet willingness to take on parenting duties, no questions asked.

Well, there's no explaining love. And to his credit, Be With You's father is handsome, earnest, and hasn't lost his swimmer's build despite dropping out of competition years ago. (Is it all the bike-riding?) He's also devoted if a bit dim. Some people prefer a partner not as smart as them, I guess. I only wish he wasn't telling all those little fibs all the time. Honesty is such an important part of a relationship — especially if it's only going to last the rainy season, no matter how often the cars get washed and how many four-leaf clovers you paste to your window.

Devils: The Details

The majority of suspense movies grip you with one of two questions: "Who did it?" or "Will they get away with it?" But Kim Jae-hoon's insane thriller Devils prompts other queries. Like "How did those cops go from running after a car on foot to chasing that same car while in their own vehicle?" And "When will there be brain transplants that don't involve the shaving of the head?" If you suspect that I'm knocking this Grade A B-movie then you're wrong. Because the central plot twist here — a killer and a cop swap minds/bodies/roles — gets the other particulars down splendidly. Devils had me wondering repeatedly: "Does a movie need to make sense to be thoroughly entertaining?"

The manipulation. The scheming. The alliances. The betrayals. The psychological warfare. The desparate attempts to prove who you are. Oh yes, when it works, ye old Devils positively excels. The acting is superb — especially between the two leads, who each convince you they're playing two parts in tandem. As the body that once housed the police officer and now houses the serial killer, Oh Dae-hwan exudes creepiness and cruel confidence. His counterpart Jang Dong-yoon relates demented disorientation. As for their "partner" in blue, who must discover what's real in this unreal new world, Jang Jae-ho brings just the right amount of wide-eyed bafflement. Admittedly, as previously mentioned, there are holes: The whole notion that extreme torture gets you a reliable confession is pretty sick. But maybe mind-swaps are like other organ transplants: You develop a taste akin to the original owner's... In this case, the predilection is sadism. But who had it first? The cop or the criminal?