THE UGLY is a new mystery thriller from South Korea. It comes from the director of the zombie megahit Train to Busan. For this one, there is nothing supernatural, but it is just as heartbreaking. Read our full The Ugly movie review here!
THE UGLY is a South Korean thriller from the genre filmmaker who gave us Train to Busan. This time around, it’s all about the ugliness of human nature. Okay, to be fair, the zombie movie had plenty of that as well, but there is nothing supernatural about his 2025 movie.
The runtime of this mystery thriller is just around 100 minutes, so it’s much shorter than most South Korean genre movies. However, this is still a very character-driven movie with a strong and heartbreaking story.
Continue reading our The Ugly movie review below. Find it in US theaters from September 26, 2025.
What is truly ugly?
The plot of The Ugly will soon force its audience to ponder what is truly ugly: Someone’s appearance or human nature? Of course, movies from South Korea always tend to offer nuanced plots and characters, but the answer is clear.
One is skin deep and entirely in the eye of the beholder, while being ugly in your behaviour goes much deeper.
In this movie, we meet Im Yeong-gyu (Kwon Hae-hyo), who was born blind and is a master artisan. He has a business hand-carving beautiful, engraved seals. Of course, being born blind did make for a tough start in life for him.
We’ll get back to that later.
The story of The Ugly truly begins when his son Dong-hwan (Park Jeong-min) receives a call from the police about his mother. They call to inform father and son that Young-hee, their wife and mother, has been found.
Or rather, her skeletal remains have been found. Supposedly, she up and left them and disappeared 40 years ago. Now, her remains have been found buried, which indicates that someone was around when she died.
In other words, murder is at the top of the list as the probable cause of death.
A life story of pain
Needless to say, Dong-hwan has a lot of questions for his dad, who never looked for her. He has never even seen the face of his mother, as no pictures of her exist. Neither has Yeong-gyu due to being blind, but he at least knew her.
Dong-hwan, who is a loving and kind man who takes care of his father, begins investigating the death of his mother.
Helping him in this endeavor is Su-jin (Han Ji-hyeon). She’s a television producer who has been filming a documentary about Yeong-gyu, and can already feel that a much bigger story is lurking there.
By interviewing people who worked with his mother at a garment factory 40 years ago, Dong-hwan soon comes to learn some brutal facts about his heritage. Obviously, he also speaks with his dad, but this mostly comes later.
Without giving away too much, I can say that both his parents had a lot of pain earlier in life. More so for his mother, who was a loving and caring person, and someone he clearly takes after.
Watch The Ugly in US Theaters
This new thriller mystery comes from filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho (JUNG_E, Revelations), who both wrote and directed the movie. He also produced alongside WOWPOINT (Netflix’s The Bequeathed and Parasyte: The Grey).
In fact, Yeon Sang-ho didn’t just make this movie; He also created the 2018 graphic novel “Face” that this is based on. A graphic novel he both wrote and illustrated.
Maybe that’s why the story of this movie hits so hard; It’s a true heart cause for this filmmaker. The casting of this movie helps it all come together with Park Jeong-min (Newtopia) and Kwon Hae-hyo (Bogota: City of the Lost) as father and son at the center.
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH…
The similarly titled The Ugly Stepsister which we’ve reviewed here >
If you’ve watched Yeon Sang-ho productions such as Train to Busan or Hellbound, then you’ll recognize that he is a storyteller who will break your heart. He uses genre elements to draw you in, and then tears your heart to pieces.
The Ugly is perhaps the strongest and best example of this. If for no other reason, the fact that nothing supernatural comes into play, but rather human nature simply rears its ugly head.
Do not miss out on this one!
The Ugly premieres in U.S. Theaters on September 26. 2025.
Details
Director: YEON Sang-ho
Script: YEON Sang-ho
Cast: PARK Jeong-min, KWON Hae-hyo, SHIN Hyun-been, HAN Ji-hyeon
Plot
One day while overseeing a documentary crew filming his blind father at work, Im Dong-hwan gets a phone call that his missing mother’s remains have been found after forty years. Determined to find the truth of her disappearance, Dong-hwan embarks on a twisted odyssey through his family’s traumatic past, uncovering dark secrets along the way.
📺 Watch trailer
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