Mother DVD

Known for his wildly different films - the police thriller Memories of Murder and the monster movie The Host, South Korean director Joon-ho Bong impresses Milo Wakelin with this latest suspenseful mystery.

There is more than a touch of Hitchcock about this gripping, unexpected, South Korean mystery, which has garnered rave reviews for Kim Hye-ja’s outstanding performance as a devoted mother trying to clear her son of murder. The veteran actress plays the kind of overprotective maternal role that would have made the Master of Suspense purr with delight, and her character recalls aspects of Notorious’s Anna Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantin), Strangers on a Train’s Mrs. Antony (Marion Lorne) and The Birds’ Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy).
 
Hye-ja plays an unnamed widow, who works as an unlicensed acupuncturist to supplement her meagre income selling herbal remedies. She dotes on her well-meaning, mentally-challenged son, Do-joon (Won Bin), but when a local schoolgirl is found dead, he becomes an easy scapegoat. She defends him tirelessly, harassing detectives and doggedly following clues like a downtrodden Miss Marple, fearlessly confronting suspects, including Do-joon’s former best friend, Jin-tae (Jin Goo), a local troublemaker.
 
The police easily extract a confession, and Do-joon is left cooling his heels in jail, his addled mind struggling to recall events that could prove his innocence, while his mother sets about unearthing secrets the community would rather forget.
 
Director Joon-ho Bong previously directed the acclaimed police thriller Memories of Murder (2003) and the offbeat monster movie The Host (2006), and with Mother he has again taken a well-worn genre, played with its conventions, avoided its cliches, and introduced unexpected moments of tragedy, levity and revelation which draw the viewer towards a powerful denouement.
 
South Korean cinema is experiencing something of a renaissance, with impeccable production values, powerful (if, to our eyes, unconventional) storytelling, and a willingness to explore difficult emotions and subject matter using dark humour alongside heartfelt drama. Mother continues this tradition, but Joon-ho Bong avoids the overt violence and heavy stylisation of Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy (2003) or Lady Vengeance (2005). Instead, this film’s power lies in the details - quiet exchanges between mother and son, whose relationship is perhaps the film’s central mystery.

Milo Wakelin on 19th August 2010
Author of 103 reviews