The seen and the unseen conspire to bring about tragedy in The Ugly, a beguiling thriller from Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho in which dark secrets are slowly dragged into the light.

Rather than the blistering madness of his acclaimed zombie hit, the South Korean filmmaker’s latest—an adaptation of his graphic novel Face which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its Sept. 26 theatrical debut—is a patient and morose tale about a son’s investigation into a familial past about which he knows little. Divided into chapters and recounted via multiple testimonials, it builds to revelations that speak emphatically to social shallowness, pressures and prejudices—even if, in the end, its bombshells resonate as less surprising than inevitable.

A blind stamp engraver

See Full Page