A still from the film ‘Salmokji’. Courtesy of Showbox
The film ‘Salmokji’ is dominating theaters with meticulously engineered metaphors and symbols.
Distributor Showbox announced on the 22nd that it had revealed three behind-the-scenes elements of the film ‘Salmokji’, which has held the top spot at the box office for 14 consecutive days.
The most striking element is the narrative reflected in the Sino-Korean names of the characters. Director Lee Sang-min embedded the traits and fates of each figure in Hanja. The protagonist Su-in (Kim Hye-yoon) uses the characters for ‘to confine’ and ‘person’, simultaneously suggesting her physical state of being trapped in a reservoir and an inner life mired in guilt toward her senior, Gyosik (Kim Jun-han). Gitae (Lee Jong-won) combines the characters for ‘happiness’ and ‘great’, marking him as someone Su-in can rely on. In team leader Gyosik’s case, substituting the ‘gyo’ meaning ‘to teach’ with the one meaning ‘cunning’ can also be read as the trait of a ghost deceiving others. Beyond these, the names of all the characters—including Kyung-tae (Kim Young-sung), Kyung-jun (Oh Dong-min), Sung-bin (Yoon Jae-chan), and Se-jung (Jang Da-ah)—align with their destinies in the story.
A still from the film ‘Salmokji’. Courtesy of Showbox
The backbone of the narrative lies in the way their actions breed ruin. In the film, the group carelessly violates taboos that shamanic belief deems defiling, bringing crisis upon themselves. Representative scenes include Kyung-tae and Kyung-jun, who enter the forest for a road-view shoot and urinate outdoors, and Se-jung and Sung-bin engaging in displays of affection by the water. Se-jung, who steps on a burial plot, and Kyung-jun, who had stubbornly denied the existence of ghosts, likewise cannot escape a tragic fate. Transgressions committed in spaces where one should never set foot are transformed into dramatic terror.
The temporal setting also carries a clear intent. The time at which Su-in and her companions struggle to escape Salmokji is fixed at 1:30 a.m. This corresponds, in the twelve-branch system, to the northeast and falls within ‘chuksi, 1~3 a.m.)’, long considered the hours when spirits come and go.
Director Lee said during an earlier talk with the audience (GV), “Since 1 to 3 is called chuksi, it is when spirits are at their strongest. I set it this way because I thought 1:30 was the easiest time for the spirits to toy with the characters”.
