In a remote village in South Korea, a lonely single mother looks after her son Do-jun (Weon Bin) while scraping a living as an acupuncturist. But her simple, poverty-stricken life is suddenly plunged into chaos when her son is arrested for the brutal murder of a local schoolgirl. Convinced that he has been set up, the mother sets out to prove her son’s innocence to the police, who seem more interested in closing the case than in researching other possible leads.
A superlative murder mystery detailing the lengths a doting mother would take in order to protect her child, this melding of psychological melodrama and crime thriller is a masterclass in sustained cinematic suspense from unrivalled auteur Bong Joon-ho.
Returning to the Tyneside in celebration of the release of Bong Joon-ho’s visionary sci-fi latest, Mickey 17.