The Anchor ~ Must Single Mothers Give Up on Life?

“The Anchor” is a 2022 Korean movie. It is categorized as thriller, suspense, crime and mystery, and psychological drama.

SUMMARY: In “The Anchor”, a prominent news presenter for JBC, receives a chilling phone call at work: a woman claims she’s about to be murdered and that her daughter has already been killed. Her colleagues told her to dismiss it as a prank call, but her mother told her to embrace it as an opportunity to become the anchor. It was not a prank call. A mother and child were found dead, and it was deemed a murder-suicide. After that gruesome discovery, the news presenter starts seeing visions of the deceased. The victim was visiting a therapist who specializes in hypnosis. The therapist helped the news reporter delve into her unsettling experiences and discover that the tormenting apparition she keeps seeing may have something to do with her own mental condition.

♦ If I Die, I Want You to Find My Body

In “The Anchor”, Jung Se-Ra works for the JBC news broadcasting station presenting nightly news reports. Her face is familiar to the public and it’s easy for a person to call the station and ask to speak to her. Jung Se-Ra receives a phone call at the station and the person tells her she’s going to be killed and that the murderer has already killed her daughter. Jung Se-Ra offers to call the police, but the caller insists that she wants Se-Ra to come to her home, verify her death, and report it on the news. The caller says that she has always admired Jung Se-Ra and wanted to be a news reporter. But she had a baby and her career goals were pushed aside because she had to care for her daughter.

Was It a Prank Call?

Everyone in the station agrees to dismiss the conversation as a prank call. But when Jung Se-Ra gets home, she tells her mother what happened. Her mother, Lee So-Jung, advises her to embrace this as an opportunity. It could be the report that fixes her position with the station as “The Anchor”. Jung Se-Ra thought about the advice her mother had given her, but she also kept thinking that the woman might be in danger. Did the caller really die? Was a young child really murdered? The caller had pleaded with her: “Please cover the story of my death.” The caller had provided her address and even though it was late at night and raining, Jung Se-Ra decided to go to the home of the caller. When she arrived she discovered two dead bodies. The young child’s dead body was in a tub full of water and the mother was hanging. Was this a double murder? A double suicide? The police decided that it was a murder-suicide. The mother had killed her daughter and then she killed herself.

Why Am I Seeing Dead People?

After these events, Jung Se-Ra started seeing the woman. Was she having hallucinations? Was she being haunted by a ghost? This event made her question her sanity. A fellow employee told her that if she did not see the person’s face, she would keep seeing the ghost. She wondered if that was true. Whatever was happening, it was very unsettling and scary. So she went to revisit the crime scene. While she was there, a man showed up. Who is he? Could he be the killer? Jung Se-Ra quickly found somewhere to hide and still tried to see if she could get a glimpse of who this person was.

It turns out, the man was a doctor. His name was Choi In-Ho and the alleged suicide victim was one of his patients. He said he only came by to see if there was something left behind that could be a clue. His patient had told him she did not want to see him again, that she was cured and no longer needed treatment. He thought it strange but there was nothing that indicated she would commit suicide.

Choi In-Ho is a therapist who specializes in hypnosis. Jung Se-Ra confided that she kept seeing the victim and didn’t know why but she wanted it to stop. He asked her a very reasonable question. If she did not see the woman’s face, how did she know she was seeing the woman’s ghost? Her fellow employee had convinced her that she needed to see the victim’s face so that the apparition would go away. She asked Choi In-Ho to hypnotize her so that she could revisit the crime scene and this time she would look at the victim’s face.

Let’s Revisit the Crime Scene

During the hypnosis session, Jung Se-Ra could see the crime scene, but other frightening thoughts and memories that had been buried in her subconscious also began to surface. Choi In-Ho suspected that Jung Se-Ra needed treatment for her own mental health condition. However, the police and Jung Se-Ra had started suspecting that he had something to do with the death of his patient. Choi In-Ho was certain Jung Se-Ra needed treatment, but it convincing her was not going to be easy.

In addition to the police being suspicious, her mother, Lee So-Jung, was also suspicious and tried to prevent him from seeing her daughter. But Choi In-Ho was determined to help Jung Se-Ra. He believed that Jung Se-Ra’s mental health problem was not the apparition, but rather, her relationship with her mother, Lee So-Jung. The murder-suicide event was the trigger that brought forth her frightening thoughts and memories. It appeared that Choi In-Ho’s concern was genuine. But Jung Se-Ra suspected Choi In-Ho may have caused his patient to commit suicide and now he was stalking her.

Is Choi In-Ho a therapist who takes advantage of his patients and uses hypnosis to persuade them to commit suicide? Or is he right about his preliminary diagnosis that Jung Se-Ra has a mental health condition and needs treatment?

Main Characters:

• Jung Se-Ra (played by Chun Woo-Hee, “Unlocked”, “Love, Lies”, “The Atypical Family”)
• Lee So-Jung (played by Lee Hye-Young, “Bitter Sweet Hell”)
• Choi In-Ho (played by Shin Ha-Kyun, “The Auditors”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 5.6 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.2 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 3 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as My Drama List.

“The Anchor” moves very slowly but eventually you understand that the film wants to address the difficulties of being a single mother. In America, there are lots of single mothers. Several decades ago, unmarried women who got pregnant pretty much forfeited having a happy future. The child who was born also suffered because the mom was poor and likely ended up on welfare. But these days, what with so many teenage pregnancies, several programs have been implemented to help a young woman continue her education and enter the workplace AND take care of her baby.

A long time ago, it was like life was over for a single mother. If a young woman gets pregnant, it’s not the end of the world. Not in America. But perhaps it’s different for single moms in South Korea. “The Anchor” created the impression that single mothers and their children have a hardknock life. A woman is robbed of her educational goals and career aspirations, which in turn, could cause the mother to have a mental breakdown and … God help the child who has a crazy mother! It could result in a murder-suicide.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Film Review: The Anchor (2022) by Jeong Ji-yeon | Asian Movie Pulse

THE ANCHOR Reviews of Korean psychological thriller | MOVIES and MANIA

The Anchor (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): An anchor in crisis | Seongyong’s Private Place

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

Cineverse. “The Anchor | Official Trailer.” YouTube Video. YouTube, January 4, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml2uiRKTPlw.‌