A name that is a county, and a name that is a cry

This reading follows a film titled Gokseong, set in a small country town where accidents no one can explain keep happening. Jong-gu, a policeman, works the case with the shaman Il-gwang and the local shaman Mumyeong, and the story, the writer says, leans on a shamanic world and on fear and thriller. People kept writing their own guesses after the film, because the ending, in this reading, was left ambiguous; this reading even says the film shows a conclusion and then makes the viewer doubt what has just been shown, as if the director had succeeded in baiting the audience. No director’s name and no year are given in these unique lines, and none are added here.

The writer then takes the title itself as a sign. Written 谷城, Gokseong is, as a first meaning, a county town in South Jeolla, a stop on the Jeolla line, a gathering point for farm goods, a place this reading also mentions for tobacco and cocoons and for Dorimsa, and the seat of the county office. Written 哭聲, the same sound is a voice of weeping. In the film, the writer’s second meaning is a closed space. The village has Korean houses with wooden verandahs and fields around it, and it is so cut off from the city that, when someone dies strangely, only the local police come. Human fear, this reading says, rises in just such a supernatural situation, when the reason cannot be known.

The outsider, a black goat, flies, and moths

The outsider, as a first meaning, is simply a person not from the place. In the film, the writer’s second meaning is a devil. That devil might be compared with one in scripture, this reading says, but is not only that, because a religious person believes as that person wishes to believe. A goat, in the first meaning, is the animal with hollow horns curved back and a long beard on the male; the black goat in the film, the writer thinks, is a sign of sorcery. It appears in a scene where the outsider eats a wild animal, and a devil this reading names 바포매트—Baphomet, as they transcribe it—has the shape of a black goat, and is called, in this reading, the strongest monster on the earth, a sign of chaos and evil.

A fly, in the first meaning, is only the insect. In the film, the writer’s second meaning is a sign of the devil, because flies often gather around corpses, and, this reading says, a devil is thought to steer insects toward a bad harvest and to steer flies toward plague. A moth, too, is first only the night insect, thicker-bodied than a butterfly. In the film, the writer reads it as another sign of the devil: after Il-gwang meets Mumyeong and drives hastily out of the town, moths strike the car window, and this reading takes them as sent by the outsider, who has, in this reading, returned more powerful than before.

A tengu, Hyojin’s fish, crows, and a jar of sauce

Tengu, as a first meaning, is the Japanese mountain being with a red face and a long nose, able to fly, living in deep hills, a kind of mountain god in that imagination. In the film, the writer’s second meaning is the devil’s essence. A tengu’s ordinary food, this reading says, is fish; in the film, Hyojin, who had never eaten fish, suddenly eats it as if possessed, and the writer takes the spirit in her to be close to a tengu. A crow, in the first meaning, is only the black bird with a thick, sharp beak; in the film, the writer reads crows as the devil’s servants.

A jangdok, as a first meaning, is the earthen jar in which soy sauce, soybean paste, or chili paste is kept or made. In the film, the writer’s second meaning is the dwelling of the god that guards a house. The outsider, in this reading, sends crows to defile the jar, in order to drive that god out. Folk belief, this reading says, is what gives the jar that charge. The same Korean essay, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. A student reading of the Korean film Gokseong, on policeman Jong-gu and the shamans Il-gwang and Mumyeong.
2. Signs the writer moves from a first meaning to a second: the title itself, the outsider, a black goat, flies, moths, a tengu, Hyojin, crows, and a sauce jar, as given in this reading.
3. No director’s name and no release year appear in those lines used here, and none are added.

Last updated: 14 November 2026