The Bacchus Lady
バッカス・レディ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A 65-year-old sells sex in a Seoul park to old men who then ask her for one more, unspeakable favour.
So-young is an old woman who sells sex to old men in Jongmyo Park in central Seoul. Like the other women there, she opens with a small bottle of Bacchus, an energy drink, and the men know what it means. At a clinic where she is being treated for gonorrhoea, a Filipino woman attacks the doctor, the married man who left her and their son, and is dragged away by the police. So-young takes the boy, Min-ho, home and hides him from the authorities. Home is a rented room in a run-down compound. Her landlady, Tina, is a trans woman who sings in a lounge bar; her neighbour, Do-hoon, is a young man with a prosthetic leg and no work. Between them the three look after the child.
Then her old clients begin to ask her for something else. Jae-woo, a courteous old client she runs into again, tells her what has become of the others. A favourite regular, Song, once a dapper man, now lies helpless in a hospital bed and tells her this is not living; she helps him die. Jong-soo, a friend of Jae-woo's who is losing his memory and has no family, asks the same. Then Jae-woo himself, a widower whose son died young and whose wife died five years ago to the day, does not want to die alone; he takes his own life in a hotel room with So-young beside him, and in the morning she weeps over him. He has left her money. She gives most of it to a Buddhist temple and spends a little on a day out with Tina, Do-hoon and Min-ho. It also comes out that So-young once worked for American soldiers and gave up for adoption the son she had with one of them.
Security cameras show her leaving the hotel, and the police arrest her. She does not defend herself. In prison, at least, she will be fed three times a day, and she could never have afforded a care home. Min-ho's mother is due for release, and he will go home to the Philippines. So-young dies in prison, alone. The box of her belongings records no family and no friends.
Starring
Youn Yuh-jungas So-young
An ageing sex worker in a Seoul park who takes in an abandoned boy and is asked by old clients to help them die.
So-young’s story
So-young is sixty-five and still sells sex in Jongmyo Park, a small bottle of Bacchus her opening line. When a Filipino woman attacks the doctor who left her, So-young takes the woman's small son home and, with Tina and Do-hoon, hides him. Then old clients ask her for something else. Song, once a dapper favourite, lies helpless in bed and says this is not living; she helps him die. Jong-soo, losing his memory with no family, asks the same. Jae-woo does not want to die alone, and she stays beside him in a hotel room while he takes his own life. When the police come she does not defend herself: prison means three meals a day. She dies there, alone, her box of belongings marked with no family and no friends.
Jeon Moo-songas Jae-woo
A courteous widower and old client who brings So-young news of her regulars, then asks her to stay with him when he takes his own life.
Jae-woo’s story
Jae-woo is a courteous old gentleman and one of So-young's former clients, and when they meet again he brings her news of men they both knew: Song, now bed-bound, and his own friend Jong-soo, whose memory is going. Behind his manners he hides a depression he has carried for years. His son died young and his wife died five years ago to the day, and after So-young has helped the other two men die, he asks her for company of the same kind: he does not want to die alone. In a hotel room high above Seoul he takes his own life, with So-young beside him; in the morning she weeps over him. He has left her money. The security cameras that show her leaving the hotel lead the police to her.
Yoon Kye-sangas Do-hoon
So-young's neighbour, a young man with a prosthetic leg and no work, who helps look after Min-ho.
An A-zuas Tina
So-young's landlady, a trans woman who sings in a lounge bar and shares the care of Min-ho.
Choi Hyun-junas Min-ho
A small boy whose Filipino mother is arrested at a clinic, taken home and hidden by So-young.
Why it matters
The Bacchus Lady is about the people left behind by a country that grew rich fast. Its heroine sells sex to men as old and poor as she is, and the film treats her work plainly, as a living. Around her gather others with no place in the system: a trans woman, a disabled young man, a child whose mother is in jail. When her old clients ask her to help them die, the film turns to the loneliness of old age and to assisted suicide, which E J-yong told Variety is something Koreans do not like to talk about; he also said the tradition of children supporting their parents has almost gone, leaving many elderly people desperately poor. So-young's own past, working for American soldiers and giving up a child, is history the country prefers to forget. She dies in prison, unclaimed. The film asks who will do for her what she did for others.