“Every decision you make shapes who you become.”
Tae-jeo (played by Song Ji Hyo), a correctional officer with 15 years of experience, learns about the death of an inmate’s mother and applies for a permit to allow the inmate (played by Ok Ji Young) to attend the funeral. When the permit gets rejected, she visits the funeral home on the inmate’s behalf and ends up befriending the inmate’s daughter, Jun-young (played by Kim Bo Min). This unlikely friendship brings warmth into both their lives.
Films about life in prison aren’t uncommon, but what makes this film interesting is its focus not on the prisoners but on the correctional officers. Tae-jeo works in a women’s prison, which means, as you may guess, this is a heavily female-led film. In fact, there aren’t even many male characters in this film other than the head superintendent of the prison (I apologise for not remembering his exact title).
[WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD]
Home Behind Bars (directed by Cha Jeong Yoon) begins by showing us life in the women’s prison which Tae-jeo works at, where we see her being a strict warden, barely showing any emotions even when she’s with her colleagues. We are then introduced to Jun-young, who at this point, we’re not sure who she is just yet. She is seen going into a motel after school, which we learn is her current residence. The facade of the motel looks really run-down but her room is nicely decorated and it actually looks quite cosy, all things considered. Meanwhile, Tae-jeo goes home to an empty house that feels somewhat cold and lonely, and gets ready for bed.
Life feels rather mundane for both characters – Tae-jeo goes to work and comes home, Jun-young goes to school and comes home. But one night, the prison receives a call and is informed that an inmate’s mother has passed away. Unfortunately, the inmate isn’t given permission to attend the funeral. Tae-jeo’s colleague (who is super bright and cheerful which is a huge contrast from Tae-jeo) feels bad for the inmate and suggests they visit the funeral house on the inmate’s behalf. For some reason, Tae-jeo agrees to this, which is surprising to me since up to this point, we see how strict she is about not doing favours for the inmates.
At the funeral home, Tae-jeo sees Jun-young being left alone at the funeral hall while the adults went to sleep, and she ends up giving Jun-young her phone number. Again, this seems really out of character and I’m not sure it’s actually allowed to get close to an inmate’s family member like this… which of course is a little problematic later on. Regardless, after a lot of hesitation, Jun-young reaches out to Tae-jeo and the two form an unlikely friendship, exchanging messages and meeting up for meals, and it’s almost like a mother-daughter relationship actually. Which, you might guess, ends up annoying the inmate once she learns about their close relationship (especially since her daughter refuses to communicate with her nor visit).
But we still haven’t come to the actual reason behind the title of this film – “Home Behind Bars.” There’s a special home within the prison grounds where inmates can spend a night with their family (initially started to allow inmates to spend time with their spouse), and Tae-jeo recommends the inmate for this programme to allow her to spend time with her daughter, much to Jun-young’s initial displeasure as she feels like she has not had a choice in anything that has happened in her life, resulting in her current circumstances. Understandable but Tae-jeo reminds her that this is an opportunity that doesn’t come by easily and hopes she considers it.
The film ends with the mother and daughter finally meeting at this special home, and the reunion feels awkward yet emotional. For some reason, seeing the inmate not being able to really cry made it even sadder.
We also see that Tae-jeo has started to “live” again, doing some serious cleaning at home and taking care of herself. It looks like she was depressed for a long time after her divorce that she just goes through the motions in life, and somehow spending time with Jun-young helped her to gain strength to start living again. I mean, if this young girl who has no father and whose mother is incarcerated, and who lives in a motel owned by her mother’s friend, can live with such bright energy, can’t we all?
The film was really heartwarming and had such warm and hopeful vibes! Writing this review suddenly reminds me that I should clean up my room too…
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This film was screened at the 2025 Jeonju International Film Festival.
