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Warning: Spoilers ahead for Revelations
There’s a nail-biting scene in the third act of Netflix’s Korean-language thriller Revelations that is filmed entirely in one shot. The protagonist, pastor Sung Min-chan (Reply 1988 and Alienoid star Ryu Jun-yeol) has ex-convict Kwon Yang-rae (Shin Min-jae) and detective Lee Yeon-hui (Shin Hyun-bin) tied up on a top floor of a building project that will one day be a mega-church. Convinced that he is being directed by God to punish Yang-rae for the presumed death of church girl A-yeong, Min-chan plans to kill the man and frame Yeon-hui for the murder.
The psychological thriller, out on March 21, reaches a boiling point in this moment, and one that would be hard to predict at the film’s start, which sees Min-chan as a mild-mannered pastor trying his best to offer solace and guidance to his dwindling flock of churchgoers. Director Yeon Sang-ho knew he had to get the scene just right. “When we were creating the storyboard, I thought that we might have to divide it into different cuts,” Yeon told TIME, through an interpreter. “But, as we were filming, I thought, this is a really climactic scene for the trio, and I need something very special.” The cast and crew rehearsed twice before going for the “one scene, one cut” take. “As we were having more takes, we could feel that our chemistry is getting better and better, and I could feel the liveliness and realness of the scene.” Yeon said he is “very satisfied” with how it turned out.
The scene is a linchpin moment for Revelations, which follows three characters who derive deeper meaning from the signs and symbols they see in the world, which drives them to justify their own, sometimes horrific, actions. For pastor Min-chan, a lightning strike illuminating a cross in a rock face is God telling him to punish Yang-rae. For Yang-rae, seeing a window shaped like the one that haunted him in the house where he was abused as a child convinces him he must kidnap…
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