"Leaving Mom": A Heartbreaking Journey of Family, Memory, and Sacrifice

"Leaving Mom" (Mang Mẹ Đi Bỏ) presents one of cinema's most emotionally devastating explorations of caregiving, memory loss, and the impossible choices families face when love collides with survival. This Vietnam-Korea co-production, directed by Mo Hong-jin, weaves a narrative so authentic and raw that it has resonated deeply with audiences, breaking box office records while delivering a story that transcends cultural boundaries. The film follows Hoan, a struggling street barber who must confront the gradual deterioration of both his mother's mind and his own health, ultimately leading him on a journey to South Korea in search of family he has never known. At its core, this is a story about the weight of caregiving, the fragility of memory, and the lengths to which love compels us to go when all other options have been exhausted.

The Central Tragedy: A Son's Impossible Burden

The heart of "Leaving Mom" lies in the relationship between Hoan, portrayed by Tuấn Trần, and his mother Mrs. Le Thi Hanh, played by Hồng Đào. Hoan works as a street barber while performing as a "street clown" to make ends meet, dedicating his life entirely to caring for his mother who suffers from advanced Alzheimer's disease. The film presents Mrs. Hanh's condition with unflinching honesty, showing how her illness has reduced her to childlike behavior while placing both financial and emotional burdens on her devoted son.

What makes this story particularly tragic is Hoan's own deteriorating health. As he struggles to maintain his mother's care, he begins experiencing symptoms of memory loss accompanied by epilepsy. This dual decline creates a devastating irony: the caregiver himself is losing the very cognitive abilities that allow him to provide care. The film explores how epilepsy can severely impact memory function, affecting both the encoding of new memories and the retrieval of existing ones. Hoan's condition mirrors the broader themes of memory and loss that permeate the narrative, as both mother and son face the gradual erosion of their ability to connect with the world around them.

The weight of caregiving depicted in the film resonates with real experiences of families dealing with dementia. The story captures the exhaustion, frustration, and guilt that caregivers experience when love feels like an obligation, and when the person they are caring for no longer recognizes them or appreciates their sacrifices. Hoan's situation reflects the reality faced by many adult children who must choose between their own dreams and their family responsibilities, often at the cost of their physical and mental health.

Main Actress Hong Dao & Legendary Actress Kieu Chinh Share the Red Carpet

Memories of Korea: The Mother's Lost Paradise

Mrs. Hanh's character gains profound depth through her vivid memories of South Korea, where she once lived a happy life with her Korean husband Jeong-min and their eldest son Ji-hwan before tragedy disrupted their family. These memories, portrayed through flashbacks featuring Jung Il-woo as the young Jeong-min and Juliet Bảo Ngọc as the younger Mrs. Hanh, represent the only moments of peace and joy that penetrate her current confusion and distress.Citrus-Media-Partners-x-Leaving-Mom-August112025_BT.pdf

The film uses Mrs. Hanh's memories as both a narrative device and an emotional anchor, showing how certain recollections can remain crystal clear even as Alzheimer's erases more recent experiences. Her memories of Korea are not just nostalgic reminiscences but represent a time when she was whole, loved, and secure. These recollections become increasingly significant as they provide the only clue to a potential solution for Hoan's impossible situation.

Jung Il-woo's portrayal of Jeong-min in these memory sequences adds layers of cross-cultural romance and loss to the narrative. The character represents not just Mrs. Hanh's lost love, but also a connection to a country and culture that might hold the key to her care. These flashbacks reveal the international dimensions of the family's story, showing how love and loss transcend national boundaries while creating complex legacies that span generations.

The Desperate Journey: Seeking Unknown Family

The film's central plot pivot comes when Hoan realizes he can no longer serve as his mother's sole caretaker due to his own declining health. Faced with this reality, he makes the desperate decision to take his mother to South Korea to leave her in the care of Ji-hwan, his half-brother whom he has never met. This decision represents both hope and heartbreak: hope that family obligations will compel Ji-hwan to accept responsibility for their mother, and heartbreak that Hoan must abandon the woman he has devoted his life to protecting.Citrus-Media-Partners-x-Leaving-Mom-August112025_BT.pdf

The journey to Korea becomes both literal and metaphorical, representing Hoan's final act of love and his acknowledgment that he cannot continue the caregiving burden alone. The decision reflects the film's exploration of difficult moral choices that have no clear right or wrong answers. By choosing to seek help from unknown family, Hoan confronts his own limitations while gambling on the possibility that blood relationships will prove stronger than unfamiliarity.

This narrative choice allows the film to explore themes of sacrifice from multiple perspectives. Hoan sacrifices his pride and his role as his mother's primary caregiver, while potentially sacrificing his mother's familiar environment and emotional security. The story asks whether such sacrifices represent acts of love or abandonment, refusing to provide easy answers to these complex moral questions.

Attendees receive special tickets to the Los Angeles Premiere

Cultural Authenticity and Emotional Resonance

The film's power lies in its authentic portrayal of family dynamics and caregiving challenges that resonate across cultural boundaries. Rather than romanticizing the caregiving relationship, "Leaving Mom" presents the raw reality of watching a loved one disappear while struggling to maintain one's own survival and dignity. The story explores how caregiving can become a prison for both the caregiver and the care recipient, even when it springs from deep love and devotion.

The narrative deliberately rejects dramatic climaxes or easy emotional reconciliation, instead focusing on the internal unrest where family bonds slowly fracture not through major conflicts, but as memories and attachments lose their meaning. When Mrs. Hanh no longer recognizes her son and he becomes uncertain of his role in their relationship, kinship fades into a shared burden that threatens to destroy both of them.

The collaboration between Vietnamese and Korean creative teams has produced a storytelling style that emphasizes restraint and subtlety over melodrama. Every glance, subtle sound, and silence longer than dialogue becomes the language conveying helplessness, confusion, and the unnamed distance within a family gradually losing its ability to understand one another. This approach allows the film's emotional impact to build naturally rather than through manipulative dramatic techniques.

Conclusion

"Leaving Mom" succeeds as both a deeply personal family drama and a universal exploration of love, sacrifice, and the devastating effects of memory loss. The film's focus on plot and character development, rather than sensational dramatic moments, creates a viewing experience that feels authentic and emotionally honest. Through Hoan's journey from devoted son to desperate caregiver to someone forced to seek help from strangers who happen to be family, the movie examines how illness can transform relationships and force impossible choices upon those who love most deeply.

The story's power lies in its refusal to provide simple solutions to complex problems, instead offering a meditation on the limits of individual sacrifice and the importance of recognizing when love requires letting go rather than holding on. As Hoan travels toward an uncertain future in Korea, carrying his mother toward a brother who may or may not accept responsibility for her care, the film leaves audiences with questions rather than answers about family obligation, personal survival, and the courage required to make devastating choices in the name of love. Catch the release of leaving mom in select theaters in the United States on Thursday August 28th, 2025

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