‘The Ugly’ review: A murder mystery links past and present in Yeon Sang-ho’s calibrated thriller

Dir/scr: Yeon Sang-ho. South Korea. 2025. 103mins

Unattractiveness is in the eye of the beholder in The Ugly, a perceptive drama in which a 40-year-old murder unlocks questions about beauty and self-worth. The new film from South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho (Train To Busan) is an intimate mystery in which an adult son (Park Jeong-min) vows to discover who killed his long-lost mother decades ago, learning in the process that she was a pariah because of her lack of good looks. Told through extensive flashbacks in which Park plays his character’s father as a younger man, The Ugly is less concerned with the machinations of the whodunit and more invested in how physical appearance defines both ourselves and our feelings about others.

Should appeal to those who love twisty thrillers with a smart message

Premiering in Toronto, the film will be released in South Korea on September 11 and the US on September 26. Yeon is best known for high-wattage genre fare such as Train To Busan and The Peninsula, but The Ugly represents a more stripped-down narrative approach. With Kwon Hae-hyo also part of the ensemble, the picture (based on Yeon’s graphic novel of the same name) should appeal to those who love twisty thrillers with a smart message.

Dong-hwan (Park) admires his ageing father Yeong-gyu (Kwon), who was born blind but has become an expert stamp carver. Ambitious young TV producer Su-jin (Han Ji-hyeon) is filming a segment on Yeong-hyu, but their interview is cut short by a shocking phone call: the remains of Dong-hwan’s mother Young-hee, who left him and his father shortly after his birth, have been found in the mountains. Never knowing for sure why she left — or even if she was still alive — Dong-hwan wants to get to the bottom of what happened to her, while Su-jin sees the possibility for a juicy exclusive.

Yeon, who also wrote the screenplay, quickly establishes that foul play seems to have been involved in Young-hee’s death, leading Dong-hwan to investigate potential suspects from his mother’s past. The present-day storyline frequently bleeds into flashbacks as Dong-hwan and the audience come to understand his parents’ lives before he was born. Cleverly, Yeon does not show Young-hee’s face, adding suspense to a common comment Dong-hwan hears about his late mother: people thought she was ugly. Cruelly nicknamed “Dung Ogre” because of an unfortunate, disgusting work incident, Young-hee is played by Shin Hyun-been as a timid woman bullied by the world.

The Ugly offers a few possible suspects, including Baek (Im Seong-jae), the arrogant boss at the garment factory where Young-hee was employed. But the film also recounts Yeong-gyu and Young-hee’s early romance, which has added poignancy because Park also plays Yeong-gyu, creating a symbolic connection between father and son. Neither man truly knew this woman, but perhaps no one did — Dong-hwan’s encounter with his mother’s relatives suggests even her closest family members did not respect her because of her physical features.

Although designed as a mystery, Yeon’s script doesn’t worry about delivering shocking revelations or wild red herrings. Instead, The Ugly dissects the nature of seeing and being seen — the reality of what we perceive versus what truly is. Hailed as a miracle because of his artistic skill despite his blindness, Yeong-gyu is initially presented as a sympathetic figure, but the film challenges that impression during the flashbacks. In a sense, both of these lovers were outcasts: Yeong-gyu because of his sightlessness, Young-hee because she was viewed as being unattractive. Yeon brings them together with unexpected results, which dovetails deftly into questions regarding how much we prize beauty in others in order to confirm our own value.

All three lead performances are carefully calibrated, demonstrating Yeon’s ability to work with actors in a spare, low-key narrative. Park excels in the double role, capturing a different Yeong-gyu than the one we meet in the present-day sequences, while Kwon is lovely as the older artist filled with regrets. As for Shin, her portrayal is intentionally limited, serving more as an enigmatic presence than a full-bodied figure. We see parts of Young-hee throughout The Ugly, and the audience will naturally wonder exactly what her face must look like to inspire such scorn. Yeon answers that riddle provocatively, in the process finally revealing his film’s full intentions.