#even when it's really dark

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Exhuma

As last week's edition of this little column succumbed to a bad case of the painbrain, I've taken steps to ensure this wouldn't happen again. This is to say I'm writing this thing ahead of time. Today, we'll be looking at a movie that combines two things I like a lot. Spooky scary hauntings with cultural relevance and procedural.

Exhuma is a Korean ghost story, and features a small entourage of spiritual experts, chiefly professional shaman Lee Hwa-rim, her assistant Yoon Bong-gil, Geomancer Kim Sang-deok and his business partner/might as well be regular partner, Burials Guy Go Yeong-geun. They're pulled together to solve an unusual problem, the spirit of a deceased grandfather coming to take his relations back to the world of the dead with him, which turns out to be the top layer of problems in a layered cake of historic and spiritual atrocities.

Exhuma is interesting in that it seems to cast the audience as the primary sceptic of the film. In a more typical ghost story there'd be some smart-aleck personal assistant or distant relative that needed to get the hows and whys of the spirit world, and probably tells the audience he doesn't believe in all that nonsense just to tell us the audience not to get attached as he is practically mincemeat already.

No, Exhuma has a very low-key approach to the supernatural. For the opening act of the movie, it's all shop talk. Hwa-Rim diagnoses the problem, Sang-Deok gets seriously bad vibes to the burial site, they come up with a shaman hack that theoretically could solve the problem but has never been field tested, and so on. The movie doesn't really exert itself to sell the supernatural stuff right away, but it clearly has a cinematographic sympathetic eye to the concept.

This isn't to say the movie holds back or tries to make things ambigious once the hauntings start, though. As soon as a freak rainshower postpones the planned cremation of the problem body and the whole spectral kit and caboodle gets unleashed from its former final resting space, the haunt is ON. A particular set of scares where the thoroughly pissed-off ghost goes to town on his family are simple but very effective, including a pretty fun phone-based scare that's basically all acting and timing, but WOW does it work.

Uncovering the true underlying source of spiritual problems, as these things often do, include digging around in some history some people would rather you'd forget. In Exhuma's case, the tale is connected to the notoriously brutal Japanese occupation of Korea and, by extension, some Japanese ghosts. It turns out they make the ghosts meaner over there, which if the ghost stories are any indication, might very well be true. It's one of those Act 3 escalations that makes both thematic and practical sense, but I personally would never have guessed at. I do find myself wondering if this spiritual occupation was an attempt at prolonging the Japanese soldier's reign of terror, or just a particularly wacky idea someone had. This might be one of those cultural ideas that I don't get, though.

Exhuma is an interesting take on the ghost story, and while it's not as scary as other, more explicit stories, it does serve up a delicious mix of spooks and specialists unwinding an elaborate and complicated mystery. Whenever I can get that without having to sympathize with a cop, I'm generally having a great time of things, and if you're anything like me on this you should give it a watch.

[starry-bi-sky]

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[akanemnon]

Wow, not even 5 seconds in and they're already starting a fight.

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MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Do you like sci-fi and indie animation? Check out Monkey Wrench!

[sesamenom]

Gil-galad Variations, featuring all the gil galad theories i've encountered.

[katnissmellarkkk]

favorite book quotes :

“It feels like such a luxury, sleeping with Peeta again. I didn’t realize until now how starved I’ve been for human closeness. For the feel of him beside me in the darkness. I wish I hadn’t wasted the last couple of nights shutting him out. I sink down into sleep, enveloped in his warmth, and when I open my eyes again, daylight’s streaming through the windows.”

- catching fire (2009) by suzanne collins

[skunkes]

idk

[girl-drink-drunk]

yeah maybe danbert isn't canon but when one of them is trying to distract themselves listening to the other have sex, goes upstairs and there's a shot of him looking on longingly at what he can't have before going downstairs looking at the ground and sadly running his hand along his shirt and tie what else can it be?

[sergle]

I always think it's funny when I see one of those posts from someone going I can't BELIEVE people talk about Ghibli films as aesthetic comfort sweet soft movies, these movies are about DARK FUCKED UP subject matter and heavy topics like DEATH and WAR and then you can scroll a little further and you can see reblogged clips from Ghibli movies of slow pans across sprawling meadows and beautifully rendered alien fauna or cozy villages with the most beautiful piano score played over it, sandwiched between moments of genuine human compassion and connection, quiet sequences of people performing mundane tasks, and I'm like yeah man that's crazy, definitely people are crazy if they associate these things w their corresponding movies. personally, I sit down to watch Kiki's Delivery Service stone-faced as I meditate on the Loss Of Innocence and I don't experience any other parts of the movie. only the serious bits. I don't reblog a single aesthetic gifset from the movie because then that means I would be Missing The Point

[sysig]

Ah, childhood memories (Patreon)

[gunstellations]

gentle mornings

[felsicveins]

is.. there any otto angst or is he just forever messing with everyone causing havoc

The night prior...

...

He doesn't have the healthiest of habits...

[breesperez139]

Dc x Dp Prompt #3

Immortal Ghost King Au:

Daniel Fenton was crowned as High King Phantom of the Infinite Realms on his 16th birthday. He knew many were opposed to him being crowned at such a young age (he was too), but the Realms had gone too long without a ruler and it was getting restless.

The Realms were sentient to some extent. It can not run itself as it has no form but it chooses a host, a King if you will, to fulfill its wishes. It may have lived on an entire millennia without a ruler, but it was only out of sheer luck and the contributions of countless gods that it had survived. The Infinite Realms needed a King and Danny Phantom was the only contender.

So the people were ignored and their boy king was crowned. However Phantom was young and naive, a child as both a human and a ghost. Even worse, he knew nothing about being a king. But the little godling would learn and learn he did.

Most kings were taught before they were coronated, but Danny had no such privilege. His coronation came and left with the wind. His private lessons overshadowed any thoughts he had left of mortal schooling. And Danny gave up on living a normal human life.

That last part was perhaps the easiest for Danny. Amity Park was already considered too liminal for them to have any “sentience”. The GIW had all but declared war on the Realms with their continuous violent actions upon his people and the land itself.

It wasn’t difficult for Amity to give up their “rights” and “humanity” either. They said good riddance to the world that never helped them, to the heroes that ignored their cries for help. And they bowed to Phantom, declaring him their King, just as he declared them citizens of the Infinite Realms.

He welcomed his liminals with open arms, vowing to protect them from any harm that would come their way, just as he would with any of his other citizens. He gave them a home in the Realms, an island- no a haunt of their own should they wish to truly reject the land of the living, and they accepted. Not many wanted to try their luck against the human government.

But with a God, no, their King on their side, they knew their safety and happiness was all but assured. After all, it was Phantom who protected them even as they turned their own backs at him. It was Phantom who fought against foes that could have erased him from existence.

And of course it was Phantom who would now receive any and all support he could ever want and need should he declare war against the humans of Earth. No, there was no need for people of the Infinite Realms to worry. High King Phantom was a God after all. It was only ever his right to exact divine punishment onto those who opposed and threatened his will. It was not their fault if the humans actively went against his will. No, the humans had no one but themselves to blame for whatever came for them.

[crowsgrudge]

fionna's world being represented by a dandelion makes so much sense ... they're weeds. yet people make wishes through them, changing their whole meaning from something meant to be destroyed to something hopeful.

dandelions are also resilient and it makes sense that something associated with them would. you know. perservere despite the destruction caused by the scarab.

but ultimately i think what REALLY made me tear up over this is that dandelions are really boring plants. when you're a kid you blow on them and make your wish but they're not eyecatching or anything but still, fionna's final wish was for her old world to still exist as it was when she left it (> plain and simple. boring even).

like the moment she realized she would lose her friends, and that her friends might forget each other if the world got its magic back, she immediately decided she didn't want it and I think that ties back to the dandelion metaphor so well... like, do you really need magic to be real to find it everywhere? or can you turn something boring into something magical?

[empyrangel]

A little late but I made Natlan edits

Anyone can use them for whatever if they want

[nobleriver]

I know what they do.