[HanCinema's Film Review] "Toxic Parents"

And right when it seemed that this would be a not that great season for Korean cinema, here comes a film that is shockingly good, with Kim Soo-in-II presenting an astonishing drama that boasts an impressive story and an astonishing performance by the main protagonist.

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The film begins by a lake where four high school students, including Yoo-ri, a seemingly model student from a well-to do family, commit suicide after meeting through a suicide web group. The police consider it a suicide, although some suspicions do arise when they realize that one of the four members actually escaped. Yoo-ri's mother, Hye-yeong, however, does not want to hear anything about it and eventually decides to pledge the case for a murder, considering her daughter's homeroom teacher, Gi-beom and her friend, Ye-na, an idol trainee as the ones responsible for Yoo-ri's death. m were the killers. Ye-na is an idol trainee and Gi-beom is a teacher who really cared for Yoo-ri. As the investigation dives into the lives of these people, it spirals out of control due to conflicting statements between the three, but detectives find out that the actions of Hye-yeong started causing cracks in Yoo-ri's heart.

Kim Soo-in-II directs a film that thrives on a number of levels. The first and most obvious one is the way the narrative unfolds, through flashbacks that shed more light to the lives of the protagonists each time they appear in the story, with each one essentially providing a revelation. In that fashion, and with the help of the impressive editing of Lim Sin-mi, Kim presents in the most rewarding way a rather distorted mother-daughter relationship, with the surprises the policemen face essentially mirroring the ones the viewer will also experience.

In that regard, and in one of the most impressive aspects of the movie, Kim holds no punches at all in highlighting how extreme a mother's love can get, to the point that actions that border on torture and illegal surveillance are done under the never-ending "cover" of the 'for your own good' concept. Han does not stop on Yoo-ri's mother actually, but continues with the utter lack of parenting of Ye-na and the intensely offensive of Gi-beom's father. In that fashion, she highlights the majority of the practices that constitute bad parenting, as we have the constantly pressuring one, the utterly neglectful (although there is a good excuse here), and the one who simply cannot love anymore, in one of the most pointed accusations towards parents we have ever seen in a movie. Here, there are no excuses of the 'sometimes kids are bad despite their parents intentions' variety, but instead a rather direct accusation towards people who should never have children.

The way Hye-yeong reacts after her daughter's death, accusing everyone around her daughter, something she actually did also when she was alive, instead of even considering the possibility that she did something wrong essentially showcases an individual that borders on the sociopathic, in a tendency, that is actually not that uncommon, but very rarely depicted on cinema. In the same fashion, the way Gi-beom's father continues to chastise and offend a son who is a kind and caring person and tries his best to help his students any he can also moves towards the same direction. That there is a kind of reciprocation here may appear as an audience-appealing element (in what could even garner applause by the audience in a cinema) but is actually a very welcome release from all the pressure, which is not found in the main arc, which actually gets even worse by the end.

Lastly, the concept of parents 'not knowing their children" finds its apogee here, as the ones in the movie appear not just ignorant, as in the case of Yoo-ri's distant father, but actually so self-centered in having their kids following the path of proper education-proper job-proper marriage-proper appearance overall that they cannot even fathom that something could be wrong with them.

The embodiment of all the aforementioned is Jang Seo-hee who gives an outstanding performance as Hye-yeong, who portrays a mother that is so despicable, that she is actually a truly horrifying villain, through her ignorance, bitterness and hate. Kim gives her some excuses, also having to do with the way she was treated by her own mother and her neglectful husband, but these are definitely not enough to excuse a woman who is literally killing her children. Kang An-na as Yoo-ri highlights her dead-end adolescence in the best fashion while Choi So-yoon is equally convincing as the tough girl Ye-na, who eventually does crumble, though, under pressure.

Not much more to say, "Toxic Parents" is a shockingly good film, and definitely among the best of the year.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"Toxic Parents" is directed by Kim Soo-in-II, and features Jang Seo-hee, Kang An-na, Choi So-yoon, Oh Tae-kyung. No release date in Korea yet.