Christianity accounts for the largest proportion of south Korean religious population, but many people believe in religions that are not orthodox Christianity, and Shincheonji Church, which attracted global attention during the epidemic, is also a branch of so-called orthodox Christianity. Because South Korea emphasizes that religious freedom can only be called a cult by religious groups that cause social harm. Religion control of people's hearts has always been one of the most serious social issues in South Korea, and even today the South Korean government has not been able to root out this problem, so South Korea often writes "cults" into film and television themes as a warning, and today I will take you to see which works are with cult colors!
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 1: "Save Me"
The Korean drama "Save Me", which aired in 2017, starred Yu Ze, Seo Rui-chi, Yu Yi-woo and others, was adapted from the web comic "Out of the World" and created by director Kim Sung-so and screenwriter Jeong I-do. The plot mainly tells the story of female student Lin Shangmei (Xu Ruizhi), who is coveted by the New God Sect Leader Bai Zhengji (Zhao Chengxia), and uses various ways to please Lin Shangmei's parents and brainwash them, thus forcing Shangmei to become a "spiritual mother". Receiving Shangmei's distress signal, unemployed young han Sang-hwan (Yu Ze) and Shi Dong-chul (Yu Yu) begin to do everything they can to help Shang-mei escape and overthrow the cult.
"Save Me" launched the second season in 2019, although the starring blood change did not continue the plot of the first season, but still took the cult as the core, combining elements such as suspense, reasoning and thriller, and even appeared more crazy characters than the first season. Adapted from South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho's animated film Paradox, the film is composed of Yan Tae-joo, Chun Hu-jin, Lee Soo, and Kim Young-min, and depicts Choi Kang-seok (Sen-ho-jin), who founded a religious group in "The Beginning of the Month" in order to build a reservoir, and Kim Min-chul (Yan Tae-joo), the "madman in the town" who sensed that the religion was quite wrong and fought alone against the organization, and the story of the confrontation between the two also evoked the audience's fear of the cult.
Although "Save Me" does not stick to the horror picture, the plots such as imprisonment and the ugly and sinister nature of the human heart make many viewers feel dull and psychologically uncomfortable, so it is strongly recommended that everyone deliberately watch it so as not to cause physical and mental discomfort!
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 2: "Little God's Children"
After "Save Me", OCN once again launched a suspense drama "Children of the Little Gods" that combines religion, crime and reasoning, directed by "Inheritors" Director Kang Shin-hyo and co-created by Han Youli, a well-known social news exploration program in South Korea, with Jiang Zhiyan and Jin Yubin as the main actors. The plot tells the story of a case of mass suicide by a religious group many years ago, a total of 31 people were killed, and a little girl who witnessed the scene seems to have known about it. Years later, the little girl grows up to become a policewoman with a special psychic physique, Jin Dan (Jin Yubin).
In the serial killings, it is foreseen that he will kill the sister of the criminal police officer Chun Jae-in (Kang Ji-hyun), but no one believes it; After losing his sister, Senjo resigns as a police officer, vows to personally catch the killer, and in the process meets Jin Dan again, discovering that the incident is related to the mass suicide of a religious group many years ago.
The key to the whole drama is quite important for the "Tianren Church", which can be said to be the main axis that runs through the whole drama, mentioning the violence, abuse, brainwashing, fraud and other illegal acts of many cult organizations, at that time, it was also speculated by Korean netizens that the story was alluding to the fact that there were many cults in South Korea, and even its influence was large enough to interfere in the political arena, and the degree of discussion on the Internet was quite high.
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 3: "Ghost Guest"
Also from the OCN original series, "Ghost Guest", directed by Kim Hong-sun of "Hell Messenger" and "Voice", and screenwriters Seo Jae-won and Kwon Sura of "Star Partner", the work of religion combining Korean exorcism and witchcraft as the theme.
Starring Kim Dong Wook, Kim Jae Wook and Jeong Eun Choi, the plot tells that Yoon Hua-pyeong (Kim Dong Wook), who has been quite sensitive to spiritual affairs since childhood, was possessed by evil spirits, and his grandfather tried his best to invite two exorcism priests in order to heal him, and he did not expect that one of the priests would kill his parents after being possessed by evil spirits, and just when he was about to kill his brother Choi Yoon (Kim Wook), he was saved by a policewoman, but the policewoman died.
Years later, the policewoman's daughter, Jiang Jiying (Zheng Encai), grew up and became a criminal police officer. In order to eliminate the evil spirits of that year, Yin Huaping became a taxi driver to track the traces of the evil spirits everywhere. Choi Yoon became an exorcism priest because of the events of that year. The three reunite in an possessive killing, and they decide to work together to eliminate the evil spirits.
The scale of "Ghost Guest" can be said to be quite large, the bloody picture is completely unceremonious, plus compared to the cult theme introduced in the previous two films, this drama focuses more on "ghosts", if the heart is not big enough, it is still recommended to watch it carefully!
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 4: "Defamation Law"
"Defamation Law", which aired on tvN in 2020, was created by Kim Yong-wan, director of "Champion", and Yeon Sang-ho, director of "Busan Trip", with Yan Ji-won, Jeong Zhi-hee and Sung Dong-yi as the main actors.
The plot depicts a righteous journalist, Lin Zhenxi (Yan Zhiyuan), who is tracking down an IT company run by witchcraft, "Forest", when he encounters a young girl with special powers, Bai Zhaoyuan (Zheng Zhizhi), who can use the curse power to kill someone by obtaining a photo, Chinese name and personal belongings.
And the president of the IT company Forest, Qin Zhongxian (Cheng Dongyi), and Bai Zhaoyuan have the same power, and suddenly become an upstart overnight, unable to explain his success with the truth of the world, so he becomes a fanatical believer in the belief in witchcraft, relying on the power of witchcraft in everything. And Lin Zhenxi and Bai Zhaoyuan joined forces to fight against Qin Zhenxian.
In July of the following year, the film version of "Slander Law: Here" was released, which is a continuation of the plot of the same time and space as "Slander Law", telling the story of the Korean legendary monster "Here" (the body of the body that was awakened by others to manipulate by spells) after waking up to form a zombie army to cause an attack in South Korea. Not only does it continue the suspense and witchcraft of the TV series, but also adds the element of zombies, adding more grotesque colors to the plot.
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 5: "The Minister of Hell"
"Hell Minister" is a bloody thriller series launched on Netflix in 2021, the theme first launched by Busan Travel director Yeon Sang-ho, adapted from the webcomic of the same name "Hell", starring Yoo Ya-jin, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jeong-min, Won Jin-er and others. The plot tells that "angels" suddenly begin to appear in the world, and will predict when they will die and go to hell, and then no matter where they are, as soon as the time comes, three-headed monsters will appear and take their lives. This process was called "demonstration" by the new religion The New Truth Society and interpreted the phenomenon as "God's will" in order to incite the people, and people full of fear and uneasiness blindly believed in New Truth.
Later, Neo-Shinrikyo became the main faith in society, and the key point was that a "demonstrator" voluntarily authorized the execution process to zheng jinshou (Liu Yaren), the leader of the new truth society, to broadcast a nationwide live broadcast, shocking the people of the whole country. As Neo-Shinrikyo grew, a radical sub-group was created that would directly conduct doxxing, bullying, and even violence against those who did not believe in Shinrikyo, and the higher the status of Neo-Shinrikyo, the stronger they became, eventually becoming a realistic version of hell.
"The Minister of Hell" is classified as 19 forbidden because of the bloody and violent plot, and the plot evaluation is quite polarized, but Liu Yaren's acting skills are still highly praised, and reflect many modern social issues, even if some dull plots still have many parts worth pondering, blindly following faith, the selfishness and indifference of modern people, are the reality that is worth reflecting on after watching "The Minister of Hell".
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 6: "Hometown"
The 2021 TV series "Hometown", directed by Park Hyun-seok of "The Secret Forest 2" and "Arbitrary Attachment", and cho hyun-hoon, screenwriter of the movie "Jane in the Dream", starring Yoo Jae-myung, Han Yi-ri and Yan Tae-joo, belongs to the suspense thriller genre, adapted from the real events "Busan Brothers' House Welfare Home Incident" and "Aum Shinrikyo".
Telling the story of the poison gas terrorist incident at the Station in 1987, which caused more than 200 casualties, and the serial murder case in 1999 in The case of serial homicide in The serious crime team responsible for the investigation, Cui Jiongren (Liu Zaiming), a criminal police officer in charge of the investigation, discovers that the missing girl Zhao Jingxian (Han Yili) is the daughter of Zhao Jinghao (Yan Taijiu), the mastermind of the 1987 terrorist incident, and suspects that this serial murder case is related to the terrorist incident of that year.
"Hometown" hit a fairly high rating in the first week of broadcasting, because the serial murder case and the brain-burning theme of the cult made the audience quite enjoyable, and more netizens said that this is a comprehensive version of "Little God's Children" and "Save Me". Unfortunately, shortly after the broadcast, the screenwriter was directed by Cho Hyun-hoon, who had a sexual harassment scandal, which led to a sharp decline in ratings and low attention in the later stage.
Cult Recommended Korean Drama 7: "Priest"
Created in 2018 by director Kim Jong-hyun of the film "National Representative 2" in collaboration with writers Moon Man-seok, starring Yoon Woo-jin, Jung Joo-mi and Park Yong-woo, "Priest" is a rather novel theme of medical treatment combined with cults, depicting the surreal phenomenon that took place in a Catholic hospital in southern Korea in 2018, and the science-advocating physician Han Eun-ho (Jung Joo-mi) will work with exorcist Oh So-min (Yeon Woo-jin) to solve the mystery of the medical exorcism story.
The plot tells the story of Father Wu Xiumin (Played by Yan Woo-jin) in the hospital when he meets a sick child possessed by a demon, and works with his mentor Father Moon Ki Sun (Park Yong Woo) and members of the 634 Phoenix Society, a secret organization of the Catholic Church, to fight against evil spirits, while the emergency department physician Han Eun Ho (Played by Zheng Roumei) has a family-related incident when she was a child, so that she no longer believes in the existence of God, but later because her friend was enchanted, she turned to the Phoenix Society for help, and then cooperated to exorcise demons and fight against evil forces.
Because "Priest" combines modern science, hospitals and other elements, so the director quoted a more authentic Western exorcism method, Yan Yuzhen, who plays an exorcist in the play, said that he practiced Latin for this, hoping to speak the most orthodox Latin exorcism spells, and put a lot of effort into the play. Also as an exorcism theme, many people will compare the drama with "Ghost Guest", "Ghost Guest" is combined with the traditional culture of South Korea, and the presentation of evil spirits is also more inclined to Asian and Oriental schools. Many netizens also said that "Priest" has a higher level of bloody horror, and everyone still has to consider their own state to choose to watch.
There are works on cult themes, and the plot is still relatively dull, terrifying or bloody to serve as a warning to people. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you look for plot-related content or stills before watching, to ensure that you can accept it and then watch it, so as not to cause discomfort in body, mind and soul! However, from many works, we can also see many connections with reality and the combination of traditional culture, and the cultural background and depth of Korean dramas in the cult genre should not be underestimated. Looking forward to seeing more excellent religious genre Korean dramas in the future!