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The Truth Beneath Directed by Lee Kyoung Mi Lee got her start in films working with Park Chan-wook and from watching this film it seems she has taken his lead when it comes to violent revenge. When a Politician's daughter goes missing the scandal threatens to upset his ambitions for an important election. We soon learn that relationships between mother and daughter are not so great when Min-jin lies about who she is doing her homework with.

Rather than begin an investigation, Jong-chan is more concerned with winning the election. It's left to her mother Yeon-cheong to look for her daughter. Things take a tragic turn when her daughter's body is discovered dumped in woodlands. How much more can I tell you without spoiling it? Getting to the truth of the events takes the mother on a nightmarish journey where she must distinguish the truth from lies. After the first twenty minutes, in which the political candidates were introduced by way of flashing subtitles on the screen, I was totally absorbed by this film.

In flash-backs, we see how the relationship between Min-jin and Mi-OK. What was interesting was the way the girls' relationship was affected by the corrupt adult world. For example, Min-OK's noticeably poorer father works as a driver for Min-jin's father, and we were given a sense of how much poorer her family was when we saw she was living in a one room building, stepping over her sleeping family when she needed to leave in the middle of the night.

I didn't count a shot lasting longer than twenty seconds; truly a feverishly edited film. Indeed, it was so intense that I watched rooted to my seat, sometimes hardly believing what I was watching.

It showed as well that for all its recent modern developments, there are still many traces of the Chung-hee dictatorship in present-day Korea. Witness the schoolgirls who stay behind to clean the classrooms every day, and the name badges that every pupil must wear. Then, there is the cruelty and violence of relationships, where love can be used as a weapon. It's a thoroughly unsentimental film with many scenes of terrible violence. It's not a film that casts a good light on Korean society, but I'm glad I watched it nevertheless.

Fairly boring at the beginning, but turns out to be quite fascinating afterwards with unexpected twists. Great acting by son.

I have seen many Korean movies but that one was incredible. The twist is a killer, and as usual direction, cinematography, acting ... were all top notch. I don't understand why this movie was not talked about as much as The Wailing or Train To Busan. I saw The Devil and The Truth Beneath are now the best Korean movies ever. A MUST WATCH!

This seemed to unfold really slow but that didn't take away from the drama. I would categorize this as a dark drama more than a thriller. It is filmed well. The acting is on point and the story is solid by the end of the film. The pace is my only complaint. If you ride out those slow moments it pays off in the end.

This is a terrific film, never boring. The female lead gave an absolutely terrific performance. She is the mother of this child and has the strength and determination that is riveting to watch. If this wasn't a foreign film I could see her nominated for a best actress.

Without ruining the film, you've read the premise and much of the film is about the mother's indomitable will and spirit to find her daughter and who was responsible for her sudden disappearance. Her determination is unwavering and while there are disturbing truths, she prods on where the police unfortunately have not bothered to pursue for a variety of reasons. If there is a weaker point, i didn't quite grasp the entire reason why that would be the case. But these things do happen.

This is an excellent movie and I highly recommend it to all. As to the tale, it might be just a little bit of a stretch but it's all very reasonably credible and nowhere near what Hollywood tries to pull off and fails. It's not your usual tale you'd expect from Hollywood and Korean films can be a bit dark and often have a bit of a twist, which is what makes them interesting. I cannot even fathom why there is such a low IMDB rating for this film. I can only guess that some don't like subtitles and who are not at all familiar with Korean culture might not appreciate that this is more eastern mentality and that people can actually act like this.