In 2021, Yeon Sang-ho and Choi Gyu-seok invited audiences to the depths of hell with their thriller series Hellbound; with their new film Revelations, they’re diving into a darkness that’s much closer to home. 

“Many of the live-action films I’ve worked on deal with surreal themes in fantasy worlds,” director Yeon (Train to Busan, Psychokinesis, JUNG_E) told Netflix. “But this time, I ruled out fantasy elements as much as possible. I wanted to depict psychological elements that can be found in reality, such as illusions, delusions, and traumas.” 

So Yeon and writer Choi Gyu-seok set out to adapt their 2022 comic of the same name, a sprawling story about a pastor who sets out on a perverse mission. “Director Yeon Sang-ho suggested creating a story about faith and beliefs, the themes that have interested him for a long time,” Choi (The Awl) told Netflix. “I was intrigued and thought that we could come up with a fascinating story.”

“I became aware of director Yeon’s work when King of Pigs was presented in Cannes, and I started following his work after,” executive producer Alfonso Cuarón (Roma, Gravity) told Netflix. “Then, when I saw Train to Busan, I was blown away because it’s one of those perfect films. I was excited ever since about the possibility of meeting him and collaborating with him.” 

Read on for more revelations about Revelations, and check out a conversation between Cuarón and Yeon above. 

Ryu Jun-yeol as Sung Min-chan in Revelations

CHO WONJIN

What is Revelations about?

Revelations follows a pastor and a detective, each driven by their own beliefs. The pastor believes it’s his divine calling to punish the culprit behind a missing-person case, while the detective assigned to the case continues to be haunted by visions of her dead sister.

“The story centers on the character psychologies of [Pastor] Sung Min-chan and [Detective] Lee Yeon-hui, who resemble one another, but make very different choices,” director Yeon said. “I wanted to create a story about a lead character with egocentric views, someone who sees and believes only what he wants to. I was thinking of such a character through whom I could create a story within the genre, and Sung Min-chan, a pastor of a new church, was born.”

The comic’s cast of characters grew from there. “Lee Yeon-hui, a police detective who harbors a trauma, followed, with Kwon Yang-rae, who commits an unforgivable crime, coming in between the two,” Yeon said. 

For Cuarón, the film’s story is universal. “I have a strong belief that cinema transcends borders, transcends languages, and there's nothing richer than a film that speaks about a very specific social context that is translated through the world because we have a shared humanity,” he told Netflix. “It doesn't matter which culture you come from, which religion you practice, which language you speak – human nature is one and the same, and it’s so great to connect each other through cinema.”

Shin Hyun-bin as Lee Yeon-hui in Revelations

CHO WONJIN

Can I hear from Yeon Sang-ho and Alfonso Cuarón?

Yes! Check out a lengthy conversation between the pair at the top of this article. Be warned: the pair’s chat contains spoilers as they wind their way through Cuarón’s love for Yeon’s The King of Pigs, the screenplay phase, shooting the film, the ambiguous ending, and finally a plea from Cuarón: please, director Yeon, send this man some comic books!

Who’s in the cast of Revelations?

The cast of Revelations includes:

• Ryu Jun-yeol (A Taxi Driver, The 8 Show) as Pastor Sung Min-chan
• Shin Hyun-been (Hospital Playlist, Reborn Rich) as Detective Lee Yeon-hui
• Shin Min-jae (JUNG_E, Parasyte: The Grey) as Kwon Yang-rae

It took a cast of formidable actors to bring the characters to life from the pages of the comic. “Ryu Jun-yeol is an actor with exceptional acting skills,” Yeon said. “After working with him for this film, I got the feeling that this skill is based not on intuitive methodology but on a deep understanding of the work. And he’s an artist who, to perfect his understanding of his character, asks an infinite number of questions to himself and to the creators.”

In the end, both creators felt their original characters were only enhanced by their acting collaborators. “Shin Hyun-been’s Lee Yeon-hui is a tragic figure,” screenwriter Choi said. “Lee Yeon-hui in the comic was sharp and stoic, but in the film, she is imbued with sadness that could crush her at any moment. Shin Min-jae’s Kwon Yang-rae seems like someone who just emerged from the fires of hell.”

What happens at the end of Revelations?

When Pastor Sung’s son doesn’t come home after school, he assumes the worst and chases down Kwon Yang-rae, a known sexual predator who’s been loitering around the church. Pastor Sung knocks Yang-rae over a cliff, seemingly killing him. Then he receives a call from his wife and learns that his son is safe — he was picked up by a friend. The pastor is horrified until he’s told that he’ll become the senior pastor of a new megachurch, which he takes as a sign from God that he did the right thing.  

Meanwhile, Detective Lee Yeon-hui is tracking down both Yang-rae and Shin A-yeong (Kim Bo-min), a young girl he’s suspected of abducting. The detective has a history with the predator: He was arrested for abusing her sister, who later killed herself. Detective Lee becomes suspicious of Pastor Sung, who has made a disturbing discovery: Yang-rae survived his fall and is recovering at a local hospital. Pastor Sung abducts him and brings him to an abandoned construction site; Detective Lee arrives, and a standoff ensues. Will she allow Pastor Sung to kill Yang-rae and be free of her guilt over her sister’s death? As it turns out, no: she saves Yang-rae from falling off a ledge but can’t quite hold on long enough: He falls to his death, giving her only a cryptic clue about A-yeong’s disappearance: “The one-eyed monster ate her.”

With the pastor in custody, Detective Lee searches for A-yeong. She receives help from an unexpected source: Lee Nak-seong (Kim Do-young), the psychiatrist who defended Yang-rae in court. Detective Lee blames him for her sister’s suicide, as he entered Yang-rae’s history of parental abuse into the record and, as Detective Lee’s sister saw it, made her abuser a sympathetic figure in the press. Nak-seong explains that the “one-eyed monster” is an attic window that watched over Kwon as his father was abusing him. 

Armed with a deeper understanding of her tormentor’s demons, Detective Lee finds A-yeong tied up in the attic similar to the home Yang-rae lived in as a child. She breaks the news to an imprisoned Pastor Sung that A-yeong is alive — but the image he fails to erase from his prison wall in the final moments of the film suggests he’ll continue to face his demons.  

When will Revelations be on Netflix?

You can stream Revelations on Netflix now.