Mother

Mother Review

While it took a while for me to really get into this film, I must say that it is still lingering in the back of my mind. This is a hard one to shake, and that is due in large part to a fascinating performance by Hye-ja Kim (think Imelda Staunton in `Vera Drake' without the happy-go-lucky overtones).

The film circles around an elderly woman's search for the truth regarding a murder that places her mentally challenged son in prison. Call it being at the wrong place at the wrong time (supposedly), but Yoon Do-joon finds himself behind bars when a young girl named Moon Ah-jung winds up dead and prostrated on a rooftop for the whole town to see. Do-joon's mother is convinced of his innocence (he couldn't even hurt a water bug) but circumstantial evidence places him at the scene of the crime and thus leaves her with only one option; investigate herself. Scrounging up the truth is a difficult task, and it may lead to answers she isn't ready to stomach, but it is something she needs to do, for herself and for her son.

I'm a really big fan of the film noir and so the tones taken in this film, especially the second half, really appeal to me. The darkness that encroaches on the films plot really flourish as the film progresses, and the conclusion is an emotional gut-punch of a very subtle kind, which I admire, appreciate and respect.

I don't really want to give too much of the films eventualities away, even though the discussion of the mother's motives and actions is eminent. Watching this film is a moral conundrum, and that is something that begs to be analyzed. What I will say though, is that the final moment, on the bus, is probably the most poignant in the entirety of the film for it really nails the mother's moral coffin so-to-speak. It reminds me a lot of how I felt at the end of `Oldboy', another Asian masterpiece. The wrongs committed and the evils known by the main character are almost justified by the viewer because of our emotional connection to the character, but when broken down and separated from the `situation' we find them inexcusable.

The mother's choice to `excuse' her actions is extremely provocative.

Color me a huge fan of Hye-ja Kim's performance in this film. It is a remarkable example of small yet powerful moments that culminate into very large yet realistically drawn explosions of emotional complexity. Her few scattered outbursts are flawlessly rendered to carry far more emotional weight than the manufactured dramatized theatrics seen in many films today. There is nothing mechanical or manipulative about this performance. You don't doubt for a single moment that this woman is this man's mother. You don't doubt for a second that she is determined to clear his name, no matter what the cost. You see every ounce of her pain and misery. It is etched all over her desperate face. What is nice though, is that she doesn't shield us from the softer spots in this woman's heart. Notice the smile she wears when speaking of the incident when her son was five. While it is a dark and disturbing incident, you can see that recalling her son in his youth brings her momentary joy.

She loves that boy, and Hye-ja Kim never forgets that.

`Madeo' is a fantastic film that may take a while to get into but is well worth the wait, for once it picks up it delves deep into the heart of paternal compassion and the need to save the ones we love.

Mother Overview

Mother is a devoted single parent to her simple-minded twenty-seven-year-old son, Do-joon. Often a source of anxiety to his mother, Do-joon behaves in foolish or simply dangerous ways. One night, while walking home drunk, he encounters a schoolgirl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and Do-joon is accused of her murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force result in a speedy conviction. His mother refuses to believe her beloved son is guilty and immediately undertakes her own investigation to find the girl's killer. In her obsessive quest to clear her son's name, Mother steps into a world of unimaginable chaos and shocking revelations.

Mother Specifications

Just as South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's previous film, The Host, subverted the traditions of the giant monster movie to examine the effects of a crisis on a unique family, his latest effort, Mother, embraces the tropes of the murder mystery for an unsettling and affecting story of parental love taken to its extreme. Popular South Korean television actress Kim Hye-ja gives a powerful performance as a downtrodden acupuncturist whose mentally challenged son (Korean A-lister Won Bin) is accused of murdering a local schoolgirl. Bullied into a confession by the local police (led by Yoon Je-moon of The Host), the young man faces incarceration at a mental hospital unless his mother can discover the killer's true identity. Her inquiry leads her into classic noir territory, with perceived truths blown apart at every turn; in typical Joon-ho fashion, these discoveries are marked by moments of shocking violence, dark slapstick humor, and moving familial drama, which come together in a genuinely unique perspective on the nature of truth and commitment. The official South Korean submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, Mother is yet another entry on a growing list of exceptional motion pictures from one of the international scene's most intriguing filmmakers. --Paul Gaita

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