Mother (2009)

Mother: Directed by Bong Joon Ho. With Hye-ja Kim, Won Bin, Jin Goo, Je-mun Yun. A mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a girl’s horrific murder.

“Bong Joon-hou0026#39;s new film is built around actors. The starting point of it is Kim Hye-ja, u0026#39;grande dameu0026#39; of Korean acting (around whom the screenplay by Bong and Park Eun-kyo is built), who gets a chance to break away from the long-suffering, boundlessly loving mother image she maintains in the long-running u0026quot;Rustic Diaryu0026quot; TV series to embrace a juicier, darker, richer role. Likewise Won Bin, whose pretty-boy looks have gotten him gangster and perfect son casting, here becomes the slack-jawed, unpredictable Do-joon, a u0026quot;retard,u0026quot; not taken seriously by most of the town, but zealously protected by his apothecary mom (Kim), who even sleeps in the same bed with him, though heu0026#39;s 27. Both the motheru0026#39;s and sonu0026#39;s roles are challenging. Kim Hye-ja shows an incredible emotional range within a de-glamorized exterior, and Won Bin subtly side-steps dumb-guy shtick, managing to keep Do-joon lastingly unpredictable and mysterious.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDo-joon has a run-in with the police after he and his friend Jin-tae (Jin Gu) hassle some fat cats at the golf club after one of them hits Do-joon with his Mercedes and doesnu0026#39;t stop. Simple Do-joon brags about being at the police station, but then gets drunk, brooding about the way Jin-tae ribs him for being a virgin and wanting to get laid. Then that same night Ah-jong, a schoolgirl, is found with her head bashed in and Do-joon becomes the prime suspect. His case seems hopeless, but his aging mother, convinced that Do-joon would never hurt a fly, takes it upon herself to conduct her own investigation of the case, which neither the cops nor the fancy lawyer she has engaged are interested in. This story carries its mother-son relationship well beyond the usual. There is no extent to which this mom wonu0026#39;t go to protect and exonerate her son, and some of the memories that are dredged up are troubling indeed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn some aspects u0026#39;Motheru0026#39; reaches back to Bongu0026#39;s 2003 u0026#39;80u0026#39;s-set police procedural u0026#39;Memories of Murder,u0026#39; particularly to its sensitive development of a small-town milieu. But this film is also full of comic aspects like the directoru0026#39;s later international success u0026#39;The Hostu0026#39; (2006, also a NYFf selection). The focus on mysterious, isolated people relates to the main character in Bongu0026#39;s top-drawer segment of the 2008 u0026#39;Tokyo!u0026#39; trilogy, u0026quot;Shaking Tokyo.u0026quot; Cell phone cameras, autographed golf balls, and acupuncture also play key roles in the story, which is full of interesting twists and turns. A major turnaround comes from Do-joonu0026#39;s bad-boy friend Jin-tae, whose true role we have no idea of at first.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBong explodes the image of the ideal mother and as usual, bends genres in this new effort. At times this might seem a twisted psychological thriller with links to Douglas Sirk and Sam Fuller, and the occasionally old-fashioned movie music by Lee Byeong-woo, traditionally surging at key points, reinforces that impression. Ryu Seong-hie, the production designer, has worked extensively with Park Chan-wook, and d.p. Hong Gyeong-pyo does a superb job in integrating the looks of a wide variety of locations. This is highly sophisticated Korean cinema at its technical best.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe canu0026#39;t possibly reveal the outcome: the essence of u0026#39;Motheru0026#39; is that its plot is packed with surprises. Perhaps indeed there are a few too many: the last ten minutes introduce further twists after the surprise climax that might better have been omitted. For all the great look, terrific acting, and explosive plot twists, Iu0026#39;m not sure this is up to the best of Bong Joon-hou0026#39;s previous work. Itu0026#39;s fun and entertaining especially at the outset and watchable throughout, but Bong and Parku0026#39;s screenplay meanders a bit. The filmu0026#39;s inclusion in the 2009 New York Film Festival may owe more to timing, to the bloom thatu0026#39;s still upon Korean cinema, and to Bongu0026#39;s status as an alumnus of the festival, than to the filmu0026#39;s intrinsic merit. (Hong Sang-soo, a NYFF favorite, despite a new film thatu0026#39;s received raves, is omitted this year. His 2008 NYFF Paris-based entry was somewhat lackluster. . .)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBongu0026#39;s u0026#39;Motheru0026#39;/u0026#39;Madeou0026#39; was included in the u0026quot;Un Certain Regardu0026quot; series at Cannes, and shown as part of the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center 2009.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e_________________”