Innocence

Jung-in is a lawyer in Seoul. She goes back to the village for her father's funeral. Several people are poisoned by something drunk at the funeral and some die. Her mother is arrested as the suspect. The woman has dementia; she cannot give a statement, cannot say what happened, and the villagers say she did it. Jung-in had not seen her mother for years. She takes the case anyway. There is an election in the village and a candidate for mayor is involved in everything. The further she investigates the more she sees that the village has a shared secret. Park Sang-hyeon directs. Shin Hae-sun plays Jung-in and Bae Jong-ok her mother; Huh Joon-ho and Hong Kyung are in the cast. It is a South Korean production. The matter it treats is a community keeping quiet; the crime is not one person's work and everyone knows something. The narrative alternates between the courtroom and the village. Because the mother cannot speak her daughter takes on her defence, and the narrative puts that relation at its centre. The film uses dementia as a device of plot and that choice was argued over. The narrative takes on local politics as well; vote gathering and pressure are inside it. The explanation at the end is held long and the tension drops there. The film was counted among Korean courtroom dramas and did moderate business. Its limit is method; the narrative is conventional, the emotional steering high, and the ending explanatory. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean courtroom drama and family narrative. Who it is not for: it is conventional, long, and the ending sentimental.