South Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho first caught worldwide consideration in 2016, when he unleashed the distinctive zombie horror of Practice to Busan upon the world. From there, he constructed out his zombie-infested franchise with the animated prequel Seoul Station and the souped-up motion film Peninsula. For his newest, The Ugly, Yeon leaves the monsters behind, however he is created a chilling thriller all the identical.
Like Practice to Busan, his newest facilities on a father and baby. However reasonably than the workaholic businessman studying to dedicate himself to his love-starved younger daughter (particularly so she will not be changed into a literal ankle-biter), The Ugly explores the connection between one other single, hardworking father and the grown son following in his footsteps. Nonetheless, the teachings realized from this household story are much less hopeful than these from Practice to Busan.
So, brace your self.
What’s The Ugly about?
Yeon tailored his personal debut graphic novel, Face, for the screenplay, which facilities on Dong-hwan (Park Jeong-min), a fortysomething Korean man who works along with his blind father, Yeong-gyu (Kwon Hae-hyo), a famend engraver. His entire life, Dong-hwan has been at his father’s facet, watching how he overcame adversity and the mockery of others to develop into not only a success in his enterprise but in addition a celeb, heralded by newspapers as a “residing miracle” for his engraving expertise.
Truly, Dong-hwan is fairly over all this fawning, which is the place The Ugly begins. A TV producer named Su-jin (Han Ji-hyeon), seemingly the most recent in an extended line, is pestering Yeong-gyu for an interview and B-roll footage, when Dong-hwan will get a really unusual telephone name. The authorities have discovered a pile of bones buried on a mountainside. The ID card discovered with them suggests they belong to his mom, Younger-hee, who ran off 4 many years in the past.
With the assistance of the story-hungry Su-jin, Dong-hwan seeks to grasp not simply what befell his mom, but in addition who she was — and if she was ugly.
The Ugly calls into query what “ugly” means.
All Dong-hwan is aware of about his mom is that she left him and his father. No matter else may need been shared has been unstated between them. However with the affirmation of her loss of life, others in her life have loads to say. Lengthy-lost members of the family, former co-workers at a clothes manufacturing unit, and her outdated boss are all fast to agree on one factor: She was ugly.
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Masquerading as a author for the TV documentary, Dong-hwan is ready to get an unfiltered view from these strangers, who readily examine his mother to a monster in her look and giggle over her nickname, Dung Ogre. They recount tales meant for example what a large number of an individual she was. However with each, Dong-hwan as a substitute sees a girl who identified the ugly fact, even when it made her unpopular.
Yeon Sang-ho withholds a key element to maintain viewers on their toes.
Credit score: Nicely Go USA
In searching for to know his mom, one factor Dong-hwan desires deeply is to see her. He was so younger when she died that he has no reminiscence of her. His father, being a blind man, has no photographs of her. And even her household insists she was camera-shy as a result of “she was ugly.” A photograph of her can be a strategy to correctly bear in mind her at her funeral, the place her stays are simply bones. However greater than that, it will be a approach for her to develop into actual to Dong-hwan.
Yeon illustrates Dong-hwan’s journey to grasp his mom by presenting flashback scenes that replicate his perspective, not that of the story’s teller. What I imply by that is, even when tales are advised from those that despise her and name her “ugly,” Yeon by no means reveals her face. Both it is obstructed by the lengthy, lanky darkish hair that hangs down from her head and onto her shoulders, or it is simply out of body. Whether or not or not she is ugly shouldn’t be a query we’re invited to reply in these scenes. As a substitute, we’re urged to guage her by her actions — as her son does.
Yeon Sang-ho delivers a twisted crime story.
The solutions to the homicide thriller aren’t wildly shocking. However to Yeon’s credit score, they’re properly charted. With every interview, Dong-hwan performs detective, piecing collectively who may have presumably wished his mom lifeless. The reveals are satisfyingly gut-wrenching.
Past that, nevertheless, in searching for her, he comes to higher perceive his father too. By way of outdated tales unearthed, he sees how his father and mom responded otherwise to challenges. And so, now greater than ever earlier than, Dong-hwan is left to surprise who he resembles. It is a level introduced up by the TV producer Su-jin, who says early on that Dong-hwan seems like his dad. However “resembles” takes on a deeper that means as he learns ugly truths. In what methods is he like his dad and like his mother? This query turns into the one that can persist with you.
In the long run, The Ugly is a stirring thriller, bolstered by darkish twists, and paid off with a last scene that performs like a monkey’s paw curling. What if what you need is finally what you get? Are you able to deal with it?
The Ugly was reviewed out of its world premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition.
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