Svaha: The Sixth Finger

Svaha: The Sixth Finger is a 2019 South Korean mystery thriller film directed by Jang Jae-hyun, starring Lee Jung-jae, Park Jung-min, Lee Jae-in, Jung Jin-young, Lee David and Jin Seon-kyu.[2][3][4] The film debuted in first place with a strong 840,000 sales and collected 1.18 million viewers in its first five days. It depicts the secret of a mysterious religious groups with Buddhist, religions and shamanism while asking heavy questions about God.

Svaha: The Sixth Finger
Theatrical release poster
Hangul사바하
Hanja娑婆訶
Revised RomanizationSabaha
Directed byJang Jae-hyun
Produced byKang Hye-jung
Ryoo Seung-wan
Written byJang Jae-hyun
StarringLee Jung-jae
Park Jung-min
Lee Jae-in
Jung Jin-young
Lee David
Jin Seon-kyu
Music byKim Tae-seong
CinematographyKim Tae-soo
Edited byJeong Byeong-jin
Production
company
Filmmaker R & K
filmK
Distributed byCJ Entertainment
Release date
  • February 20, 2019 (2019-02-20)
Running time
122 minutes
CountrySouth Korea
LanguageKorean
Box officeUS$17.7 million[1]

Plot

A mystery thriller where Pastor Park, a man who works at exposing suspicious religious groups, faces a mysterious incident where he’s hired to look into the cult group deer mount. At the same time the police are also investigating a corpse of a female whose body is found in a tunnel and the main suspect is a member of the same cult being investigated by Pastor Park.

The story first starts when Geumhwa and her twin sister “it” are born. Geumhwa, being born with a deformed leg, lives in a remote village with their grandparents where her twin, who was not supposed to live for long, is kept as a mystery. Throughout most of the film the “it” twin is kept as a mystery and is locked up in a shed in the backyard. Geumhwa seems terrified of their siblings and the grandparents, especially the grandmother asking for forgiveness from the gods because of it.

In the town they live in, tensions rise as those around the town find something strange about them. As many mysterious occurrences begin things get more complicated becoming intertwined with various religions, gods, Buddhism, demons and even immortality. All this is occurring while pastor Park delves more into the deer garden cult that leads him onto more bigger secrets.

Cast
  • Lee Jung-jae as Pastor Park
  • Park Jung-min as Na-han
  • Lee Jae-in as Geum-hwa
  • Jung Jin-young as Chief Hwang
  • Lee David as Joseph
  • Jin Seon-kyu as Monk Hae-an
  • Ji Seung-hyun as Kim Cheol-jin
  • Min Tanaka as Nechung Tenpa
  • Cha Sun-bae as Manager monk
  • Hwang Jung-min as Deaconess Sim
  • Lee Hang-na as Park Eun-hye
  • Jung Dong-hwan as Kim Je-seok
  • Moon Chang-gil as Geum-hwa's grandfather
  • Lee Joo-sil as Geum-hwa's mother
  • Cha Rae-hyung as Detective Jo
  • Oh Yoon-hong as Bodhisattva Yeon-hwa
  • Kim Hong-pa as Prison governor
  • Kim Geum-soon as Jecheon shaman
  • Park Ji-hwan as Jang-seok
  • Kim So-sook as Cheol-jin's mother
  • Kwon Gwi-bin as Na-han's mother
  • Moon Sook as Myung-hee
  • Lee Dae-hyeon as Dr. Noh
  • Bae Hae-sun as Autopsy doctor
  • Yoon Kyung-ho as Cattle shed owner
  • Jung Seo-in as Cattle shed owner's wife
  • Baek Seung-chul as Geum-hwa's father
  • Lee Sang-woo as Head monk
  • Yoo Ji-tae

Production

Principal photography began on November 19, 2017 and wrapped on April 9, 2018.[5] The title Svaha decided when a colleague of director Jang Jae-hyun recommended it. The term is used in Buddhism which memorizes a certain order in Buddhism that then makes “it happen”.

For 90% of the locations shot they had vivid production designs, Despite the cold reaching 20 degrees below zero in some areas. The production team devoted 90% of shooting an entire location of Gangwon-do province with a mountainous area in South Korea. Cinematographer Kim Tae-soo[6] also created blue-based water as a base to create a cool-toned cinematic atmosphere while preserving the cold tones for the season of winter. The camera movements and shooting styles also emphasized expressing the tension that heightens, which later on rises with more close-ups as it reaches the second half.

Background

Although Buddhism and esotericism are the main focus in the film, there are also elements such as Maitreya, Shichuan and references to the Bible as well. For instance, when the twin sisters are born, there’s a cross-reference to brothers  'Esau and Jacob in the bible. Where Jacob for example when born, came out with his twin brother's heel. In the movie, the similarities are when the twin sister considered as "it" survived by eating its twin Geum-hwa's leg. There’s also an instance where Kim Je-Seuk was admired by many religious people for showing the miracle of fire, considering it the motif of Herod the Great, who killed all boys around to stop the birth of Jesus. Similar to Kim Je-seuk who did the same but instead killed girls born in the year 99 in Yeongwol to get rid of his enemy who could possibly kill him.

Release

The film released on February 20, 2019, attracted 190,000 audiences on the first day and won #1 box office. On the second day, it exceeded 2 million views, in total bringing in around 2.19 million audience. Thus bringing in cumulative sales of 20,007,508,194 won[7] which is around  16,481,474.98 U.S dollars. Actor Jeong Dong-hwan, played the role of Kim Je-seok who after gaining enlightenment, his body never grows old. But the film faced some backlash as they used a photo of Independence activist Na-Cheo[8] l with the character Kim Je-seok face instead and was synthesized as a pseudo-bishop who was respected by the public. When in reality Na-Cheol was an independence activist known as the godfather of the anti-Japanese independence movement founded in Daejong Gyo, before the National Order of Merit was added. There were also controversies that into their official trailer of 30 seconds could possibly “damage” ambassadors. There was also a protest from Sincheonji, a Christian movement and church of Jesus, over some scenes from the trailer. They stated concerns over the 30-second trailer as it could damage the group's reputation. But since the film is not aimed at a religion it had nothing to do in the end with the film.[9]

Awards and nominations

At the 56th Grand Bell Awards, the movie got 8 nominations and won 2 awards. It won for Best Art Direction( for Seo Seong-kyeong) and Best Lighting( for Jeon Young-seok).[10][11]

Awards Category Recipient Result Ref.
55th Baeksang Arts Awards Best Film Svaha: The Sixth Finger Nominated [12]
Best Director Jang Jae-hyun Nominated
Best New Actress Lee Jae-in Won
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References
  1. "SVAHA : THE SIXTH FINGER (2019)". Korean Film Biz Zone.
  2. "[Herald Review] 'Savaha' has clever buildup, relevant message, insufficient payoff". www.koreaherald.com. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. "[INTERVIEW] Lee Jung-jae less flamboyant in 'Svaha'". m.koreatimes.co.kr. 18 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  4. "[Movie Review] 'Svaha,' horrifying mystery thriller about religious exploitation". koreatimes. 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
  5. "KoBiz - Korean Film Biz Zone". www.kobiz.or.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  6. "Tae-soo Kim". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  7. "사바하 - 나무위키". namu.wiki. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  8. "Daejongism", Wikipedia, 2020-01-04, retrieved 2020-05-01
  9. "사바하 - 나무위키". namu.wiki. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  10. Ha, Soo-jung (January 17, 2020). 제56회 대종상 영화제 2월 25일 개최..'기생충' 11개 부문 최다 후보 [공식] [The 56th Daejongsang Film Festival was held on February 25th.. Most candidates in 11 categories of ‘Parasite’ [Official]]. News Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  11. [제56회 대종상]'기생충' 작품상 포함 5관왕 달성…이병헌·정유미 주연상(종합) [[56th Daejong Award] Achievement of 5 crowns including'parasite' work award... Lee Byung-Hun and Yoo-Mi Jeong starring (General)]. Herald Corporation (in Korean). June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020 – via Naver.
  12. Cho, Yeon-gyeong (April 5, 2019). "55회 백상예술대상 영화부문 최종 후보 공개". Is Plus (in Korean). Naver. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
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