UMMA (2022)
Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 83 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Audio: English, French DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, Spanish, English Audio Description 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Iris K. Shim
Cast: Sandra Oh, Fivel Stewart, MeeWha Alana Lee, Tom Yi with Odeya Rush, Dermot Mulroney
In the Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) produced ghost story Umma (2022), which is the Korean word for “mother,” Amanda (Sandra Oh, Sideways) and her teen daughter Chris (Fivel Stewart, The Haunting of Sharon Tate) live a quiet, isolated, and electricity free life on a small honey farm in the American Southwest. The electricity free lifestyle stems from what Amanda describes as some sort of deadly allergy, and their only contact with the community away from the farm seems to be a kind man named Danny (Dermot Mulroney, Stoker) who runs a small general store in town where he sells their honey output, seemingly their only source of income.
Teenager Chris is at that age where she starts to defy her mother in the usual small ways as teenagers do, even applying for college with the help of Danny, despite the fact that her mother doesn't seem to want to let her leave the nest so to speak. She does try to talk to her mom about stuff but Amanda shuts her down when she attempts to talk about sensitive things, like her leaving the farm. There are scene peppered throughout of Amanda having terrible nightmares about her mother and some sort of punishment by electricity she was subjected to, which explains her aversion to electricity and her estrangement from her mother, but it's clear she's never confided in her daughter about her nightmares or her youthful torments, and straight up lies to her about certain things rather than open old wounds.
Things turn for the worse when a man named Kang (Tom Yi, The Purge), Amanda's uncle on her mother's side, arrives from Korea with a suitcase containing the ashes of Amanda's recently deceased mother. He tells her that he is ashamed she has forsaken her given Korean name, not taught her daughter her language, and that she was not there for her estranged mother at the end, and how her spirit will remain bitter and restless until she is given a proper ceremonial burial. With the arrival of her mother's ashes Amanda becomes haunted by the long-lurking fear that she might turn into her mother, and her daughter's attempt at pulling away from her is only exacerbating those fears and her worst tendencies. Chris is naturally intrigued about her mother's past and inquires about her relationship with her mother, and of the Korean customs, but her mother is not prepared to share, further driving a wedge between them.
There's obviously a supernatural elements at play here, the spirit of Umma (MeeWha Alana Lee) certainly makes her restless spirit and anger known, but the genre tropes are used more as metaphor for strained family relationships, cultural identity, resolving generational guilt, and exploring the troubling mother-daughter dynamics of all three generations. That's not a bad thing at all, I think it's used quite well and the film has some great atmosphere and very tense and even startling jump scares that are well-executed, but it's not a traditional horror film and would caution anyone expecting this to be a frightener. I rather enjoyed the trappings of a Korean ghost story set somewhere in the American southwest, it looks great and plays well, but the best stuff her is the phenomenal performance from Sandra Oh who deeply conveys the anguish, guilt and fear the characters are experiencing. Stewart is also pretty great as the rebellious teen acting out against her increasingly erratic mother.
Audio/Video: Umma (2022) arrives on region Free Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 1080p HD widescreen (2.39:1). Shot digitally it is obviously free of blemish and grain issues, colors are strong, details are pretty great in the close-ups, and blacks are adequate, if less than nuanced. Minor issues with banding to pop up but were not ruinous.
Audio comes by way of English and French DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, plus the option to view with Spanish or English Audio Description 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital, all with Optional English Subtitles. The 5.1 is robust with crisp dialogue and terrific sound design that complements both the eerie and reflective quieter moments as well as the more tense music cues by composer Roque Banos (Don't Breathe). No extras for the film aside from Sony trailers, which is too bad, it feels like a personal film for both the director Iris K. Shim (The House of Suh) and star Sandra Oh, I am sure they would have had a lot to say about the project and I would have loved to hear it. There is an insert with a code to redeem a digital copy of the film.
