If you’re a fan of gritty South Korean cinema, mark your calendars because the mastermind behind Train to Busan and Peninsula, Yeon Sang-ho, is back with a psychological punch to the gut. His latest flick, The Ugly, is a haunting deep dive into family trauma that’s about to hit your screens.
What’s It About?
Forget the zombies for a second—this story is way more personal and arguably more terrifying. We follow Im Dong-hwan, a documentary filmmaker who spends his days filming his blind father. His life gets flipped upside down when he gets a phone call out of the blue: his mother’s remains have finally been found… forty years after she vanished.
What follows isn’t just a cold-case investigation; it’s a total “twisted odyssey.” Dong-hwan digs into his family’s history and finds a lot more than he bargained for. Think generational guilt, buried secrets, and the kind of grief that doesn’t just fade away—it rots.
Heavy Hitting Talent
The cast is absolutely stacked with some of the best names in Korean cinema right now: Park Jeong-min (Harbin), Kwon Hae-hyo (Peninsula), and Shin Hyun-been (Revelations). Im Seong-jae and newcomer Han Ji-hyeon round out a group that clearly knows how to deliver a performance.
Award Season Darling
This isn’t just another thriller; it’s got the “prestige” label all over it. After making a splash as an official selection at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie cleaned up at the Blue Dragon Awards with a massive 10 nominations. We’re talking the big ones: Best Picture, Best Director (Yeon Sang-ho), Best Actor (Park Jeong-min), and Best Screenplay. Impressive, right?
If you like your thrillers dark, emotional, and visually stunning, The Ugly is a standout. Just maybe don’t watch it right before a family reunion. Well Go USA Entertainment is dropping The Ugly on Digital on March 10. If you’re a physical media collector (we see you, steelbook lovers), you can snag the Blu-ray™ or DVD exclusively through Amazon starting May 26.
