Acacia 2003

Unable to have children of their own, married couple Mi-sook and Do-il adopt a young boy named Lee Jin-seong. His name soon becomes Kim Jin-seong as he settles into their home. The boy feels a strong pull toward an acacia tree in the backyard, believing it to be his mother, and the tree quickly becomes the focal point of unsettling events when Jin-seong appears to have vanished.

Jin-seong forms a connection with an older girl, Min-jee, who confesses that she cannot attend school because she has “lost a lot of blood.” After she kisses him, his behavior grows more erratic and violent. His turmoil intensifies as Mi-sook becomes pregnant and gives birth to a new baby, Hae-sung. Jin-seong’s emotional distress deepens, he withdraws, and anger toward his adoptive family surfaces—so much so that he attempts to harm the newborn.

In response to Jin-seong’s escalating obsession with the acacia tree, Mi-sook makes the drastic choice to cut it down, and the boy is said to have run away. Yet the tree that seemed near dead begins to bloom with astonishing life after his disappearance. Min-jee undergoes a troubling change too, growing more fixated on the tree and reporting eerie experiences: she claims to hear Jin-seong’s voice emanating from within the trunk and witnesses a surge of paranormal activity around the tree, including flowers and ants that appear to target Jin-seong’s family.

What unfolds reveals a tragic secret: Mi-sook’s mother, Mi-sook’s mother, recalls how Jin-seong was gravely injured when Mi-sook tried to cut down the tree. Her husband saw what happened and helped bury their adopted son, thinking he was dead. When Jin-seong’s arm moved, signaling he was alive, Do-il struck the buried body with a shovel to finish the act. Stricken by guilt and stress, Mi-sook’s mother slides into a deep illusion, convinced that her son has run away, a conviction that erodes her grip on reality and shadows the family with lingering tragedy.