Sometimes (not always) a movie can surprise you in the third act. You can be going along, bored out of your mind, wondering what the hell made you watch this movie, when suddenly a crucial bit of info is uncovered, the truth is revealed, and your previous prejudices toward the film vanish. That was the case when I viewed this film, one late Friday evening and I am glad I didn't stop it halfway through to watch something else.

Written and directed by Ki-hyeong Park, this Korean chiller is as memorable as it is plodding, unfortunately. The pacing is the bad news, but the good news is that the ending more than makes up for any confusion and frustration you may feel along the way. Mi-Sook and Do-il (who I shall refer to as Mi and Do from here on) have not been able to have a child of their own, so they decide to adopt. They chose an artistically inclined three year old, who quickly becomes enamored with the dried up Acacia tree in the family's spartan back yard. The boy's mother died on a rainy night and he feels strongly that she was reborn as a tree, which is apparently a common belief. The boy, Jin-Sung (or Jin for short), starts to really like his new mom and dad and they love him in return. But before you can say plot twist, Mi gets pregnant with a baby and poor, lonely Jin becomes old news.

When the baby arrives, Jin is instantly ignored, and he starts to act defiant. He tried to suffocate the baby on one occasion and this puts the parents on high alert. They can no longer trust their adopted son around their real son, and this puts tension and strain on every relationship in that household. There is even talk of returning him to the orphanage because the general feeling is that they don't need him anymore. Feeling a real lack of attention, Jin states that he is leaving to join his mother. He storms out of the house and the film fades to black only to deposit us back inside the house the next morning. Jin has gone missing and the parents call the police. Mi and Do start to slowly push each other away until Do finds a needle in his rice bowl and blames Mi for trying to do him in. Meanwhile, the dried up Acacia tree starts to grow leaves and flowers again. Mi's mother, who was mean to Jin, walks over to smell the flowering plants dropped by the tree and starts coughing blood. She ends up in the hospital, but Do's dad fairs a bit worse when he approaches the tree and scores of ants crawl all over him and flood into his ears, nose, and eyes, until he is dead.

Mi and Do slowly starts to realize that something is going wrong, and I do mean SLOWLY. Most of the film is nonsensical flashes of images and the characters sitting around, staring off into the distance and looking depressed. Then Do storms home to have it out with Mi and the film immediately won me over as the true events of the night of Jin's disappearance play out. Needless to say I don't want to ruin it, but the previously slow, and turgid movie ends as a gratifyingly poetic and beautifully sad statement on the substance of a soul and the substance of a family and it's members. There are no bad people here, only victims.

I really wish the middle of this obscure gem had been a little more juicy, but after getting the full picture at the end, a second viewing would probably improve and even enrich those dry, dull, and nonsensical portions. This is not your typical Asian ghost flick. There are no long haired ghosts about. Although the acting is in the same vein, where everyone looks depressed or confused, the payoff of the story satisfies like nobody's business. It's not often that I can call a horror movie beautiful, but this one delivers a stunningly hard-hitting finale that left me, as a parent, emotionally stunned and when a movie can take my breath away then it deserves to be praised.

- Jose Prendes