Director Jang Jae-hyun of the movie “Exhuma,” which is about to surpass 10 million cumulative viewers, recently gave a testimony at the Dream Church (led by Pastor Ha Jeong-wan) that he attends.
“I always say that I’m a church deacon wherever I go. But people always laugh. People laugh because the movie is about a shaman and because it’s a horror movie. Sometimes people say that I don’t have to say that,” said Director Jang. “I’m proud to be a church deacon. That’s why I always make sure to say that I’m a church deacon when I go to interviews or events.”
Jang Jae-hyun shared how he was led to make “Exhuma”
“When I was preparing for the movie ‘Exhuma,’ I had just finished my previous movie ‘Svaha: The Sixth Finger‘ and was studying the subject of ‘Exhuma.’ On my way home from a tomb relocation in Chungju, I passed by the Independence Memorial Hall in Cheonan and decided to visit it.”
“I saw the traces of the suffering of countless independence fighters at the Independence Memorial Hall. I cried for a long time as I read the letters they wrote.”
“If we think of our country’s land as a person, this person has tremendous painful scars all over its body, and it has a lot of trauma and fear from being invaded in the past, so it needs healing,” he said. “So I made the movie with a healing heart.”
He also shared a story about the lead actors of the movie
“I went to see the lead actors practicing for their roles as shamans, and the two shamans I met said the same thing: ‘You have a lot of people praying for you.’ It was a new experience for me.”
“I believe that the God I know is not in a big and flashy place, but next to those who are suffering, like in the war zone in Ukraine, or with mothers who pray every dawn, or with mothers-in-law who pray for me. I believe that God is everywhere,” he said. “And even when I can’t attend church services, I live my life thinking that God would be happy with these small movements, even when I can’t attend church services.”
Jang concluded by sharing his plans for the future
“I worked on the movie for five years. So I didn’t get to spend much time playing with my kids during that time. Now I’m going to take a break,” said Director Jang. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the faces of the church members, and I feel like I’m the only one getting old.”
Meanwhile, Pastor Ha Jeong-wan, who delivered the sermon titled “Comfort, Comfort” (Isaiah 40:1-8) on that day, said, “The movie (Exhuma) talks about the problem of ‘sin’ and shows us how our sins are revealed.”
“We must stop the foolish act of seeking comfort and problem solving by relying on shamans. We must face our own sin. We must acknowledge our weakness and rely on the grace of God who has mercy on us,” he added.
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