The Ugly plot recap, spoiler-light
The Ugly follows Im Dong-hwan, a man managing the business side of his father's career. His father, Lim Yeong-gyu, is a celebrated elderly blind seal-engraving master revered across the nation. While a television documentary crew led by a producer named Su-jin films Yeong-gyu at work, Dong-hwan receives a shocking phone call.
The skeletal remains of his mother, Jung Young-hee, have been unearthed at a construction site after remaining buried there for nearly forty years. Growing up, Dong-hwan had only been told that she abandoned the family when he was an infant. Driven by a need for answers, Dong-hwan and Su-jin dig into the past, discovering that Young-hee was widely mocked and reviled for her physical appearance during her youth, earning the cruel nickname Dung Ogre.
However, accounts also paint her as a brave woman who once confronted a tyrannical factory chief named Baek Ju-sang after a co-worker was assaulted. When Dong-hwan and Su-jin track down Baek, he claims his thugs found Yeong-gyu disposing of Young-hee's body decades ago. Armed with this disturbing new context, a distressed Dong-hwan seizes the documentary footage and resolves to confront his blind father directly about the dark family secret.
What happens at the end of The Ugly?
Key takeaways
