Pa-myo

Young shaman Hwa-rim and her partner and co-medium Bong-gil respond to a call for help from the USA, where the wealthy Park family, Korean exiles, is plagued by irritations: something is wrong with the family’s descendants and the head of the family himself is hearing screams. The duo accept the job – after all, it’s well paid – and along with a feng shui expert and a undertaker, they start to exhume the ancestors’ grave in the north of Gangwon-do province. In the process, something escapes from the coffin, people die, others prove to be obsessed and the real problems haven't even started yet. Jang Jae-Hyun’s third feature film is a horror mystery thriller full of humour and verve, addressing issues of class, history, tradition, religion and superstition. Unfolding around the strange coffin in this odd place is an episodic series of lushly staged incantation rituals with linguistic analyses of grave lids, that relishes in cinematic effects and is carried by a great cast – besides Oldboy star Choi Min-sik as the geomancer, above all Kim Go-eun.

Jang Jae-hyun, born in 1981 in South Korea, he studied at the Korean National University of Arts. His short film 12th Assistant Deacon won the Best Director award at the Jeonju International Film Festival, and the Best Short Film at the Paris Korean Film Festival. Continuing his directorial journey, he wrote and directed The Priests (2015) and Svaha: The Sixth Finger (2019).

Production Charlie Shin, Jang Jae-hyun, Kim Young-min, Kim Jee-hye. Production companies Showbox Corp. (Seoul, South Korea), Pinetown Production (Seoul, South Korea). Director Jang Jae-hyun. Screenplay Jang Jae-hyun. Cinematography Lee Mo-gae. Editing Jeong Byeong-jin. Music Kim Tae-seong. Sound Kim Byung-in. Production design Seo Sung-kyung. Costumes Choi Yoon-sun. Make-up Lee Eun-ju. Executive producer Charlie Shin. Co-production MCMC. With Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hai-jin, Lee Do-hyun.

World sales Showbox Corp.

Films: 2009: Indoeseo on Malli / Maley from India (short film). 2010: Bus (short film). 2014: 12 Beonjjae Bojosaje / 12th Assistant Deacon (short film). 2015: Geomeun Sajedeul / The Priests. 2019: Svaha: The Sixth Finger. 2024: Pa-Myo / Exhuma.

Bonus Material