ok so i finally watched Salmokji a few days ago (May 8th) and only now got the time to edit my pics + write this, so yeah… late review incoming. as a Javanese person, i'm honestly kinda close to mystical stuff in general. we literally grow up with things like Nyi Roro Kidul, the Queen of the Southern Sea. so this whole vibe already felt familiar in a weird way. that's actually one of the reasons i was curious about this film in the first place. but after watching it, i feel like… before you go in, you really should at least know the Salmokji legend a bit. even just the surface level myth. because from what i'm seeing, a lot of people saying like, "the plot is weak!" "why its overrated?" "i dont like salmokji..." "jumpscare here and there..." might be missing that cultural layer. i think in Korea, this isn't just a story with a fixed origin. it's an urban legend. something passed down mouth to mouth, not a neatly documented lore. so the film doesn't really explain "why" or "how it started" because… there is no clear starting point. it's just the belief: if you go to Salmokji, you die. that's it. that's the rule. and the film treats it like that on purpose. it kind of reminds me of Pengabdi Setan in a way. like, for outsiders, people might ask, "why are you all so scared of Ibu? and that pocong things?" but for locals, the fear is inherited. it's already rooted. you don't need an explanation to feel it. for me personally, since i've watched Battle of Fate and have a bit of exposure to shaman stuff, i kind of guessed early on who the old woman was supposed to be. but still, the movie itself is really good. the jumpscares are nonstop, like genuinely felt like my heart was doing cardio in a rollercoaster. but it's not just cheap scares. there's structure behind it. there are rules in this world. and the most important rule is this: once you get touched by water, you dont leave alive (or die). from the beginning, there's this recurring sound of stones being tapped. and every time it happens, it feels like people are being called toward the water. then one by one, they die. the order actually matters too. what's interesting is Suin. she has trauma with water. and weirdly, that trauma is the only reason she survives longer than the others. she barely touches water throughout the film while everyone else eventually does but in the end, when she hesitates on the boat... her foot touches the water. just a small moment. but that's basically the point where everything is already decided. the thing that protected her all along also eventually fails her. and then there's the shaman angle too. the old woman clearly isn't just human. and the stone ritual thing feels connected to her influence somehow. it starts feeling like there's another layer of rule here: wishes tied to the dead are the only ones that actually work. like: 1. Gyosik wants to meet his wife → he meet her, but in a death related way 2. Sejeong wants to see a ghost → she see it 3. Suin wants to meet Gyosik → she meet him, but Gyosik isn't human so everything kind of comes true in a twisted way but if your wish has nothing to do with the dead (like wanting to get rich like Seongbin), it doesnt really matter. you still die anyway the moment you enter that system. so yeah, whether the wish works or not, once you interact with those stones, you're already inside the curse i also feel like Kitae is kind of stuck in this weird liminal space between life and death. like on one hand, the rule is very clear: once you touch water, you die. and Kitae does touch it. so by that logic… he's already gone. the film also does this thing where time keeps moving. everyone's trapped in that 2AM loop, but Kitae somehow makes it until morning. that alone makes everything feel unstable, like the rules aren't fully solid anymore… or maybe they're already breaking down from the inside? idk. and there's no moment where Kitae participates in the stone ritual, no clear wish tied to him. so its like he's not even fully part of the system that grants meaning to everyone else's deaths. he's just… caught in it. which makes his survival feel less like survival, and more like delay. idk bro. this just my theory. but ngl i think thats why the ending works so well. open ending. they just leaves you in that uncertainty where both things can be true at once: he's alive? or he's not? and i really like Suin's last line. "아무도 믿지 마" feels like the final seal on everything not just a warning to the characters, but almost like a message leaking out to the audience too. because in a story like this, even the act of believing what you saw becomes dangerous. you can't trust the explanation, you can't trust the rules, and you definitely can't trust the ending to give you closure. and that silence after… honestly hits harder than any jumpscare in the movie.