Svaha: The Sixth Finger

The story starts when Geumhwa and her twin sister, called only "It," are born. Geumhwa is born with a deformed leg and grows up in a remote village with her grandparents, who raise dogs for a living. "It," who was not supposed to live for long, is kept hidden from the public eye, locked up in a shed in the backyard. Geumhwa seems terrified of her twin and grandparents, especially when her grandmother prays for forgiveness from the gods because of how they treat "It." When some locals attempt to investigate the shed, snakes crawl out of it and bite them.

Meanwhile, Pastor Park, a man who works at exposing cults, is hired to investigate a mysterious group called "Deer Mountain." At the same time, the police also start investigating the group when one of its members is the prime suspect in the murder of a girl whose body was found buried in concrete.

In the town Geumhwa lives in, tensions rise as the townsfolk grow more suspicious. Mysterious events begin to occur, with animals behaving in unnatural ways. As Pastor Park delves further into the cult of Deer Mountain he discovers Buddhist legends, seeing parallels in them to his own Christian faith. Kim Cheol-Jin (responsible for the murder of a girl) encountered the ghost of the murdered girl at the Company Construction site. After the police's prime suspect in the murder of the girl found in concrete commits suicide, Park discovers he may have been seen by the cult as one of the four "guardians of the winds." Park discovers that four boys who were in prison at an early age for patricide had been adopted by the man who started Deer Mountain, Kim Je-seok. The man who killed himself was one of those boys, and two others have died while involved in the murders of young girls as well. One remains at large, and seems to be plotting to kill Geumhwa. The scriptures of Deer Mountain speak of 81 "snakes" who will come to kill "the light."

Pastor Park speaks with a Tibetan monk, who recounts an encounter he had many years ago with the man who would go on to start Deer Mountain, Kim Je-seok. He tells Park that the man has twelve fingers, a sign of holiness, and is immortal, over one hundred years old and was born in 1899. Park realizes that the Deer Mountain scriptures speak of a "snake" who will kill "the light," born in the same village one hundred years after him. Park concludes that the cult founder Kim Je-seok is "the light," and the reason why the "guardians of the winds" have been killing young girls is to attempt to exterminate every possible "snake" born in 1999 in the same village. Park reflects on the similarities between this series of killings and the Massacre of the Innocents in Christian myth.

The last remaining "guardian of the wind" attempts to kill Geumhwa, but stops when she asks him to kill her twin sister "It," the demon, as well. The killer confronts "It" in the shed, only to find she has taken on the pose of a Buddha and tells him "the light" is a fraud and predicts the future. The "guardian" goes to kill Kim Je-seok, only to be shot by him. Pastor Park, trying to stop the murders from occurring, finds the shot "guardian" and rescues him. Park confronts "the light" but is unable to stop him, and while they are both distracted the dying "guardian" climbs into the car Kim Je-seok is driving. When "the light" drives away, "the guardian" kills him.

We learn that Geumhwa survived, and the film ends with Pastor Park musing about why God lets people suffer.

Principal photography began on November 19, 2017 and wrapped on April 9, 2018.[5] The title Svaha was decided when a colleague of director Jang Jae-hyun recommended it. It is a term used in Buddhism when memorizing a certain series of events makes them "happen”.

90% of the scenes were shot on location, despite the cold reaching 20 degrees below zero in some areas. The production team devoted 90% of shooting to 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 emphasize expressing the tension, which later is increased by more close-ups in the second half of the film.

Although Buddhism and esotericism are the main focus in the film, there are also elements of Maitreya, Shichuan and references to the Christian Bible as well. For instance, when the twin sisters are born, there’s a reference to the biblical brothers Esau and Jacob. Jacob is said to have come out of the womb with his twin brother's heel. In the movie, this is similar to when "It" survived in the womb by eating her twin's leg. There is also the reference to Massacre of the Innocents when, just like King Herod the Great, Kim Je-Seuk who killed all of the infants born in a certain place to get rid of an enemy predicted to defeat him.

The film released on February 20, 2019, attracted 190,000 viewers on the first day and was number one in the box office. On the second day, it exceeded 2 million viewers, in total bringing in around 2.19 million audience members. This brings 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 when used a photo of Independence activist Na-Cheo[8] for an earlier photo of the character Kim Je-seok. 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 started. There was also a protest from Sincheonji, a Christian movement, over some scenes from the trailer. They were concerned when they say the trailer that the film could damage the group's reputation.[9]

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]

• Svaha: The Sixth Finger at HanCinema
• Svaha: The Sixth Finger at the Korean Movie Database
• Svaha: The Sixth Finger at IMDb
• Svaha: The Sixth Finger at Rotten Tomatoes
• https://movie.naver.com/movie/bi/mi/basic.nhn?code=167099#
• https://movie.daum.net/moviedb/main?movieId=115191