The Ghost Station (2023) is a South Korean horror film about a reporter who investigates a series of mysterious deaths at Oksu Station. The film is an atmospheric horror film that builds suspense and dread as it unfolds. It has apparitions, curses that can be transferred and a backstory to the child monsters. In this movie, we see the ghost’s point of view of why they are seeking justice for their death.
The Ghost Station (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The movie begins in Oksu Station, where a man witnesses a girl who seems to be drunk. He messages his group about this girl, and she is not seen again as he lifts his head. He waits for the train. Something makes him move towards the tracks, and he puts his head outside the door, and his head is crushed when the door closes.
Na Young is a newbie reporter who is in trouble at her news station for not reporting correctly. She is now desperate for a news story to keep her job intact. He reaches out to her friend Woo-won who gave her leads to the previous story and tells them their lead was wrong. Na Young is sad about being unlucky all her life. Woo-won gives her an idea for an exclusive news story. He tells her that after she had left the station, there was an accident at Oksu station.
Woo-woo tells her that on that day, he had visited the station master and had seen a man on the railway tracks of the abandoned station. The station master asked him to see what the matter was. Woo-won rushes toward the man, and he seems to be in a trance; he tells Woo-won that a kid is on the tracks. A train approaches them, and Woo-won jumps from the platform. Na Young tells him that it will not be a good story since he was the only witness. Woo-won says that the mortician had seen the child as well.
They visit the mortician, who says his father is related to gods and spirits. He says he started working at Oksu station, around the time it opened, when he was ten years old. He talks about the first accident in Oksu station and where humans’ limbs were cut off. Upon asking about the child, the mortician says that the child said its name was “1211”. Na Young asks Woo-won to copy the CCTV footage and give it to her as no one will believe the story without evidence.
Na Young tries to interview the police but to no avail, as they deny any such occurrences. Woo-won recalls the incident and washes his face. Hi, a colleague, pranks him, and Woo-won is scared. His colleague sees the number 1013 on the mirror and says it out loud. Woo-won secretly copies the CCTV footage and gives it to Na Young.
Woo-won tells Na Young the train driver is wandering around like a madman. Na Young rushes to interview him. She asks him why he was wandering around the platform, and he says he cannot leave because of a child clinging to his back. The child is leaving nail marks on the driver’s body. He heads down, and Na Young rushes with him. The driver is asking out loud if she will repeat the numbers. He starts saying ‘0319’ loudly. When Na Young touches him, he turns around, and his face is covered in nail marks and blood.
Na Young is being celebrated in the office for increasing viewership from the article. The President stops and enquires if she had interviewed the driver as the driver was dead when she interviewed him. Na Young sees the CCTV footage to find that she is alone. Na Young gets a call from the sister of one of the people who had died in Oksu station. She tells Na Young that her brother had probably gone searching for the well, and hence, he died. She tells her that she had gone through hypnotherapy, recalled seeing a well, and could not remember anything afterwards.
Na Young does some research and gets back to the sister, asking about the orphanage near the well, but she does not recall the orphanage. Na Young and Woo-won visit the mortician to see the driver’s body. Na Young captures pictures. The mortician tells them there were many accidents in Oksu station, all with nail marks on their body. He shows them the photographs of every incident.
The sister goes through her father’s and brother’s things and recalls her past. She sees a picture of her brother, father and herself in front of the Oksu orphanage. Na Young is celebrated in the office again, and the President asks her to continue the story. She asks her to scrape information the sister gave as she would probably be admitted to a mental hospital soon. Many people started posting pictures of getting nail marks. Woo-won sees nail marks on his colleague’s neck and hands.
In the lady’s washroom of the Oksu station, a woman is attacked by a child and is killed. The colleague gets a complaint from the women’s washroom and heads over to find this woman dead. He is also attacked by the child monsters and is killed instantly. During the funeral, Woo-won calls Na Young and shows her the nail marks on his body. He is scared as everyone with the nail mark dies and Na Young stays with him. Woo-won tells her that he keeps having the same dream about a well. She takes him to his sister.
Na Young explains to the sister that Woo-won had already seen the four digits and had nail marks. She says she had some memories of the Oksu orphanage and that her father used to run the orphanage. The four digits were the dates the kids were admitted on and the dates to send money to her father. Na Young asks to see her brother’s phone, and they find a recording of him at the Oksu station, where he finds bones of children.
Na Young and Woo-won go down that track to find the bones and free the children. They experience apparitions, hear voices and have terrible, scary experiences. Woo-won records footage in the event of something going wrong. They find a door and go inside to find the children’s bones. The sister calls the mortician as she wants to hold a proper funeral for her brother. The mortician curses her, and she comes to Na Young.
Na Young is being suspended for not obeying the President. Her boss tells her that when she started working as a reporter, she was asked to bury the story about the well, so she was taking it out on her. Woo-won rushes to the mortician after having scary experiences to know why his nail marks are not disappearing. He tells him that the children’s resentment needs to be heard, and the only way he can get rid of the nail marks is if he transfers them to someone, and the way to do it is to have the will to live and make the other person say the number out loud.
The sister reveals to Na Young that the kids were put in a well, and her brother begged for her name to be called so she was rescued. She also tells her that she was adopted. Her father was running an organ trafficking, and he would bury the children alive. Na Young asks her how he knew how to transfer the curse, and he says that her father was a wizard. She explains that the kids were forgotten and wanted to be called out, so they come out when you call out their numbers.
Woo-won calls Na Young. She is worried about him, but he says he has changed his number and gives her his new number in the disguise of making her call out the 4-digit number of one child. Na Young immediately realizes and asks him how he could do that to her, and he says he is sorry as he wants to live. Na Young was asked to resign.
The movie ends with Na Young going to the President and confronting her about her knowing about organ trafficking, but she denies it all. She asks the President to read out the four digits, and then she would give her resignation and leave. The President shouts after she sees the nail marks on her hands.
The Ghost Station (2023) Ending, Explained:
The movie ends with Na Young seeking revenge on the President. Woo-won and Na Young know how to transfer the curse so that Na Young can transfer the curse to the President. The President, however, does not know how to transfer the curse. There is a chance she does if she is pretending not to know about the orphanage and the story of the well. She will surely find a way to transfer the curse if she does. But considering the way the movie ended, it is likely that she will die because of the curse.
Woo-won’s actions, in the end, were the most surprising move. Given the way his character was built, him transferring the curse to his friend Na Young was quite an unpredictable turn.
The Ghost Station (2023) Movie Themes Explained:
Grief and loss
The film explores the idea of the pains of the deceased. The movie’s main theme is remembering the story of the children who passed away unjustly. The film portrays the pain that must have been caused and why it is important not to forget the dead without recalling their story and bidding them a good farewell.
Corruption
The whole Oksu station investigation started because of an evil President who wanted to mess around with her newly joined employee. The President was selfish and corrupt. She wanted to hide the story of the ghosts and not reveal the complete truth because of her gains. She was also not given a chance to cover the story of the well in the past, and she takes it out on Na Young. She even removes Na Young’s name from the published news and asks her to resign.
![My Dog Is Sick [2022]: ‘WFF’ Review – A Poignant, Subversive Psychosexual Experience](https://www.highonfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/My-Dog-is-Sick-1-768x432.jpg)
![The Seasons – Four Love Stories [2022] Review: Four gentle, familiar tales about love and reconciliation](https://www.highonfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/The-Seasons-Four-Love-Stories-2022-Movie-Review-768x432.jpg)
