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A review by Adam Goodall @ Silent (the student magazine of Victoria University, Wellington)

Mother

by Adam Goodall, July 20, 2009

I've recently taken to telling any oblivious and uninterested passer-by I make eye contact with that the best films are currently coming out of South Korea. With films like Attack the Gas Station!, Secret Sunshine, Memories of Murder, The Host, JSA: Joint Security Area and Oldboy coming out of that little peninsula, South Korea is rapidly making a name for itself as a producer of smart, effective, stunning films that play with genres and characters to startlingly good effect. It's no surprise then that the New Zealand Film Festival's Korean contingent is especially large this year, and among the six films in the lot, the one that's been garnering the most attention is Bong Joon-ho's latest, slow-burning thriller Mother.

The man responsible for rip-roaring monster film/family dramedy/cutting social satire The Host, Bong Joon-ho returns to the style and genre he perfected in based-on-true-events crime drama Memories of Murder with this tale of an incredibly devoted mother who fights for her mentally-handicapped son's freedom, convinced he isn't guilty of the murder of a schoolgirl that he's been convicted of. Bong doesn't waste time getting to this plotline, allowing one exciting and darkly humorous opening sequence involving a hit-and-run and university professors to set the film's slightly irreverent and deceptively dark tone before Do-Joon, the aforementioned son, gets arrested and carted off to prison.

Mother does get a little bit flabby and lethargic at that point, as we follow the attempts of the mother, Hye-ja, to get her son freed through use of the legal system; however, this is but a setup for the heart of the film, that being Hye-ja's committed and single-minded quest to put together the evidence and exonerate her son by herself. Once Bong hits this section of the film, we are privy to a young director in his prime. Clever and stylish in his execution and presentation of the labyrinthine plot, the sheer beauty and tranquility of some of the shots, contrasted with the masterful creation and maintenance of high tension in the more intense scenes, present Bong as someone whose visual flair is thankfully matched by his ability to play with genre expectations and make us react exactly the way we should to the material.

However, Bong's direction and screenplay are not the stars this time around. Rather, Bong's leading lady, Korean television star Kim Hye-ja, is undoubtedly the best thing about this thriller. Kim fully inhabits the role of the tenacious mother, her performance a stunning, believable, utterly human portrayal of a woman who would do anything for her son, no matter what. She keeps the film locked in reality as the story becomes more sensational and Hitchcockian, and as the film continues, it's clear that anyone else would not be able to bring what she brings to the role.

Mother isn't up there with Bong's best-but then, when compared to the intelligent, exciting brilliance of The Host and the slow-burning intensity of Memories of Murder, very few films would be. It is, however, a tightly-wound, sublimely satisfying thriller of the highest order, with one of the best performances of the year that will not be nominated for an Oscar because it's in a film that has subtitles and isn't French.

Mother
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Written by Bong Joon-ho & Park Eun-kyo
With Bin Won, Ku Jin and Kim Hye-ja
Showing as part of the International Film Festival 2009

Source: Silent.org.nz

K-Film Reviews - 마더 (Mother)

Posted by X, Aug 17, 2009 - Twitchfilm

The crimson mantle of light and shadows before sunrise, one last bittersweet goodbye to a day almost gone; their hands in the air, sparkles of youth from many moons past all together embracing that withering light before darkness once again comes. Dancing, screaming, laughing, burning with passion despite the aching vestiges of the past, as if no worry in the world could ever break those fleeting moments of jubilation, solace and a little bit of eerie madness. There is no illusion, no empty chimera for those who know the dark side of the moon. Just a few sweet, mad minutes, when the beast strips the mask, and like all creatures great and small dances around the feeble, unyielding fire of life. Because they're women, mothers, nature's most beautiful and puzzling invention. Saints and whores, monsters and goddesses; a life's companion, best friend and a lot more.

I'm generally not one to be taken aback by single scenes, particularly when it comes to storytellers as diabolically talented as Bong Joon-Ho. But, and I wouldn't worry about spoilers, one particular moment from a so-called "minor" work of his known as 마더 (Mother) might just be amongst the most beautiful and placidly terrifying moments in all of modern Korean cinema. It turns out that Bong waited no less than five years to shoot said scene, jotted as number two on the notebook he so lovingly conserved in between escapades along the Han River and curious, solitary trips to Tokyo. On the top of that page was just a name. Hers and no one else's. Kim Hye-Ja.

The most curious aspect of Bong's cinematic world, set aside all the obvious factors which turned him into that rare combination of wild mainstream acceptance and cult status amongst the "non-philistine," has always been the sudden, ingenuous whims of a twelve year old film buff pulsating inside the skeleton of a master filmmaker. Most of Bong Joon-Ho's films start from curious, at times even childish little slices of life, moments that perhaps only cinema can fully explain. In Mother's case, it was an excursion to Mt. Odae during Bong's youth. You know, the whole ordeal: elders, dried squid, rivers of soju, loud trot music pumping inside the bus all the way to their destination. But the funny thing was that these senior citizens (mostly those infamous ajumma) kept dancing even when the bus had reached the mountain pass' entrance. For one hour straight. Bong thought it was just an embarrassment back then - a lousy, noisy parade of old farts and nothing more. But now he seems to understand what that moment meant, enough that he made a film about it.

Sure enough, two of Mother's highlights are pretty much a recreation of those moments: the first quite abstract, almost surreal, madly eccentric but also strangely sexy and with an eclectic aftertaste which keeps caressing your eyes and ears even days after the film is consigned to the dark meanders of your mind. The second, well, by now you can guess it has to do with a bus and dancing housewives. They're like two solitary artistic flourishes, set at polar opposites of what is a delicious exercise in economy and minimalism. Of course this doesn't mean that the film doesn't look good. Far from it. DP Hong Kyung-Pyo's first partnership with Bong on his first cinemascope affair shows moments of pure visual and technical brilliance, but they're always smartly buried inside the storytelling, as is Lee Byung-Woo's irresistibly subtle score. They don't become a character on their own, like they would in a Lee Myung-Se film. The minimalism here refers more to Bong's sense of pacing, his editing choices and the way he envelops this story around its thematic consciousness. If you take those two virtuoso moments out of the equation, then it's all a rather matter-of-fact affair, with nary a wasted scene, not a second spent indulging on a character's reaction or a certain mood, to generate feelings on cue. It's all so eerily smooth and nonchalantly immersive that only once you're removed from a genre-based storytelling approach (i.e. whodunit tropes) you can start to really look at the exquisite details and narrative tapestry on display.

What has changed and made Bong's film hit even harder, then, is Mother's strongly introspective themes. 플란다스의 개 (Barking Dogs Never Bite), 살인의 추억 (Memories of Murder) and 괴물 (The Host) all basked in political and social satire and were influenced by external narrative antagonists (such as, obviously, the cute little monster). But Mother's pathos is almost completely resolved introspectively. There seems to be no more time for pungent satire, as what we get is bleak reality treated with Bong's usual irony, which in turn mirrors today's social climate in Korea. Call it "2009 Lost Memories," if you will - a bad pun on a pretty silly blockbuster of a few years past whose title sadly fits today's Korean psyche like a glove, as it seems like letting bad memories evaporate into the alluring fumes of oblivion is the new calling card for a people tired of living in distress, even when the price to pay for so-called "emotional prosperity" is a little decadence, along with the gradual erosion of freedom and diversity. Still, despite the slightly darker tones of Mother compared to Bong's past works, what once again transpires is how effectively a period's smell, sights and sounds can ooze from his works.

If we got 수사반장 (Chief Inspector) reruns, violent underground questioning and the endearing ineptitude of the 80s Jeon Du-Hwan junta-based Memories of Murder, and the off-kilter, post-IMF crisis family mores of The Host, what Mother serves us with is a dose of 2000s pungent scent, specifically of Lee Myung-Bak's Korea. It's peculiar how all the similarities between this film and Memories of Murder based on their respective time periods sort of mirror some of the political and social developments which are dominating today's Korean society. What is different, though, is that there are no ordinary heroes anymore, just beasts laid bare by the system; beasts who try to survive and protect what they cherish, at the cost of letting all that ethical maelstrom ravage their souls. If Memories of Murder brimmed with chaotic violence borne out of the "glorious" 80s, the invisible violence against the weak displayed in Mother is all the more painful - perhaps because many people are living it as we speak. As subtle as the social commentary in the film might be, those elements emerge with impressive resonance.

I've nearly only spoken about Bong Joon-Ho so far, but this film belongs to one fantastic performer first and foremost: Kim Hye-Ja. Sure, Won Bin gives a surprisingly multi-layered performance, and the rest of the cast is an exercise in restraint and savoring every chance you are given, from Yoon Je-Moon to the animal-like panache of Jin Gu. But it was for Kim Hye-Ja that Bong made this film, trying to convince her ever since Memories of Murder wrapped up. It's a shame that a lot of the aura Kim projects in this film will be lost on the International audience, because the last thirty years of her career have mostly been spent on TV, playing the quintessential mother figure for weekend drama queens like Kim Soo-Hyun, Kim Jung-Soo and Park Jung-Ran, so the contrast will be less explicit.

What was so frustrating about Kim, whose last film appearance was alongside the late Choi Jin-Shil in 1999's 마요네즈 (Mayonnaise), is that her career was sort of commoditized by the same factors which brought her fame. First with 전원일기 (Country Diaries) throughout the 80s, then 1992's monster hit 사랑이 뭐길래 (What is Love) and countless other "mothers," her talent was slowly and inexorably watered down by the same old characters (albeit played with the same playful verve). Frustrating because if you've seen her rare escapades into non-mother territory, such as her guest starring as a killer straight out of a Melville flick in an episode of Chief Inspector during the late 1970s, you'll see what kind of largely untested potential she always had.

We're dealing with one of the most beloved and respected icons in the industry, someone who projected a gentle, laid-back image for decades, and who is notorious for her involvement with charities over the years, so perhaps it was going to be a challenge to see the other side of the coin, at least on cinematic terms. The image of the "Korean mother" Kim Soo-Hyun and Kim Jung-Soo have created along with her acting over the decades was that of someone still tied by traditional (patriarchal and Confucian-based) social mores, but escaping from that glass ceiling from time to time with some pungent sparks of energy-particularly memorable were her sudden tirades against hubbies Lee Soon-Jae in What is Love and Kim Seong-Gyeom in 1999's 장미와 콩나물 (Roses & Beansprouts). Perhaps that's what intrigued Bong, beyond all the respect and admiration he had for Kim. The challenge of bringing out all the fire that she had to conceal for decades. The results are, simply put, astounding.

Think of the scene where she tries to convince the family of the victim that her son is innocent. As she looks at them in the eyes and mutters a gentle "my son could never do something like that," hell fire and brimstone explode inside those pupils, as if a dormant dragon was freed from captivity after unnerving decades of silence. It's just riveting to watch her go from over-possessive mother to the peculiar, quasi-incestuous nuances she oozes, not to mention that final moment of liberation. As good as 박쥐 (Thirst) and a few other films might (turn out to) be, if we see a better performance than this before 2009 is over, then I'm afraid we've got some serious pills of greatness awaiting for us, because Kim Hye-Ja is just majestic here.

Mother is many things which remind of Bong's older exploits, but also shows the possibility of a new direction, elements which could seriously come into play in a few years, when his insanely promising 설국열차 (Le Transperceneige) hits theaters. Memories of Murder might still be his flagbearer and the high point of Korean cinema's renaissance, but this young director has built such tremendously diverse and accomplished body of work after only a few films that I'd be inclined to even use that trite old cliche: the sky is the limit. Can Bong Joon-Ho do no wrong? He probably can. Who knows, maybe one day he even will.

But today? Oh mother, today's not that day. Not by a long shot….

Rating: 9

Source: Twitchfilm.net

A Review by James Douglas @ Screen Machine, Melbourne

MIFF09 review: MOTHER (dir. Bong Joon-ho)

Posted by James Douglas on August 14, 2009.

I think with Mother, his fourth feature length work, Bong Joon-ho cements his place as my favourite working director of any nationality. I've seen him compared (on the basis of his two previous works; The Host, and Memories of Murder) with Spielberg and Hitchcock, and unlike most such analogies this description manages to be both utterly foolish and somewhat apt. It's easy to scramble for such names when discussing Bong's work for two reasons. First, because despite defying most generic narrative descriptions, Bong's films nevertheless feel like they belong in the thriller tradition in which those two directors made their names. Secondly, because it's rare to find a director so utterly, even supernaturally, in control of his material, and with such an unerring grasp of timing and audience response. Scene after scene unfolds with strange tonal and formal zigzags, but Bong never seems anything less than confident in his ability to string the audience along. And unlike most other directors who are intent on keeping the audience in their palm (think of, perhaps, Michael Bay or Peter Jackson), Bong's films feel totally effortless.

While Mother, which follows the frenetic attempts of a woman to exonerate her simple, sweet son of the brutal murder of a teenage girl, may present less immediately engaging, or obvious thematic subtext than the law and order and institutional indictments of The Host and Memories, I feel confident that repeated viewings will illuminate a critical portrait of contemporary Korean family and social dynamics. Regardless, the film's formal thrills more than make up for this on first viewing. Also interesting is the way Bong recycles scenarios and dynamics from his two previous works: the endlessly compassionate parent guiltily caring for a mentally diminished child; an indifferent police force coercing culpability for a murder out of a simple man-child; staged public re-enactments of crime scenes; unconventional families and absent parents.

Equally exciting is the way Bong carefully replays and recycles moments two or three times, tracking their changing significances. It's such a simple narrative trick, and often the hallmark of a well-structured script, that I'm surprised it's something more directors don't utilise. In particular, observe the progress of a golf club, a box of acupuncture needles, a little-known pressure point on the thigh, and the way a certain name appears; twice humorously, once tragically.

The film also contains my very favourite single shot of the entire festival, perhaps of the entire year. The mother has snuck into the house of her son's callous friend, suspecting him of framing her child. When he returns home with his girlfriend she is forced to hide in the closet, clutching a piece of potentially damning evidence. Bong plays out a scene of high tension as the two lie post-coital on the floor, and the mother must navigate her way past a forest of half-empty water bottles. As one tips over, Bong, almost outrageously, cuts to a close detail of the water slowly seeping towards the man's dangling, twitching fingers: so simple, so mundanely hilarious, so stunning. And it got the best audience reaction I heard all MIFF.

Source: screenmachine.tv

Toronto International Film Festival

Sep 19, 2009

A review by Bill Chambers @ Film Freak Central

MOTHER (Madeo)
*** (out of four)
starring Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin, Ku Jin
screenplay by Park Eun-kyo & Bong Joon-ho
directed by Bong Joon-ho

Bong Joon-ho's deliciously serpentine Mother (Madeo) is the story of a mom (Kim Hye-ja, awesome) who has supported her mentally-challenged son, Yoon Do-joon (Bin Won), into adulthood; monitoring him from afar while chopping roots, she's so watchful that she doesn't notice herself cutting off her own finger. She even sleeps in the same bed with him, though Bong doesn't sink to Bad Boy Bubby depths of depravity. When Yoon Do-joon is scapegoated for the murder of a schoolgirl, Mother makes it her sole (soul? Seoul?) mission in life to prove his innocence, which gradually transforms her into a distaff Kyle MacLachlan as she goes sleuthing in the city's Lynchian underbelly. (Much has been made of the murder victim's archetypal resemblance to "Twin Peaks"' Laura Palmer (she's the local teenaged Madonna/whore, but the picture's most blatant--and no less effective for it--homages are to Blue Velvet.) It's not as fun as The Host and not as unsettling as Memories of Murder, but its wizardly craft does provide further evidence that Bong is one of the most formidable filmmaking talents to have emerged this decade, and its vision of maternal instinct rings true. Mother also begins to throw some of the director's predilections and leitmotifs of Bong's work into relief, including a Hitchcockian distrust of law enforcement (Memories of Murder is essentially Zodiac starring the Keystone Cops, and in Mother, once the police are finally right, they're still wrong), vigilant parents, field imagery, unexpected humour, and, regrettably, a tendency to overstay his welcome. Just a smidge.

Source: filmfreakcentral.net

Toronto Film Festival '09: Day 7

by Noel Murray and Scott Tobias September 17, 2009

Mother
Director/Country/Time: Bong Joon-ho/South Korea/129 min.
Cast: Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin
Program: Special Presentations
Headline: When a woman's mentally handicapped son is accused of murder, she investigates what really happened

Noel's Take:
The best murder mystery stories start small and build out, becoming more about the community where the crime took place, as well as the changing character of the detectives who look deep into the hearts of killers. In that sense, Bong Joon-ho's Mother is a superior murder mystery. It starts with an almost pathetic crime-a mildly retarded adult accused of killing a promiscuous teenage girl-and eventually expands to take the measure of the small South Korean town where the murder took place, and of the woman who sifts through clues in order to learn the truth. The woman (played by the remarkable Kim Hye-ja) is the mother of the accused, and is seeking more than vindication for her boy. She brought this kid into the world, and taught him how to conduct himself, and if he actually killed somebody, one could argue that he's merely the murder weapon and she's the culprit. Like Bong's previous films Memories Of Murder and The Host, Mother could stand a little tightening; but also like those films, Mother is a genre film that both honors conventions and weaves around them whenever possible. Bong makes Mother a classic gumshoe tale, with red herrings and interrogations and moments of sublime suspense. (Bong is way into scenes where puddles of spreading liquid cause deep anxiety.) But he has a habit of investing even minor characters with intriguing personalities, and he's often willing to spend a little more time with them than necessary. And boy does ever he have an eye. Mother is rarely splashy with its style, but the shots are well-chosen-especially the many close-ups of Kim, as various revelations dawn on her-and when Bong builds to a dreamy, impressionistic finale, he's earned every bleary frame.

Scott's Take:
More Memories Of Murder than The Host, Mother finds Bong returning to the small-town whodunit, but where the earlier film dealt with a community grappling with the unthinkable, this one operates on a more intimate scale. Kim's maternal instinct to protect her son, intensified by his child-like deficiencies, takes Mother to increasingly nervy places, as she takes it upon herself to exonerate the boy. Like Noel, I think the film could be a bit tighter, but the third act pays off big time, with a pile-up of revelations that suggest both the breadth and the limits of her devotion. And Bong becomes a more confident stylist with each successive effort: He knows how to draw out suspense-some sequences here are almost Hitchcockian in their elegance-and he's not afraid to cut the somber proceedings with quick hits of slapstick and black comedy. South Korean films are known for their tonal schizophrenia, but Bong has more control than most; the mix of comedy, drama, and suspense in his work is not jarring, but responsive to the complexity of human life. It's a supreme compliment to say that at the end of Mother, you appreciate the many sides of the eponymous character while still finding her mysterious.

Noel's Grade: A-
Scott's Grade: A-

Source: avclub.com

TIFF Film review: Mother

ADAM NAYMAN
FOR METRO CANADA
September 16, 2009 7:41 p.m.

Mother
Rating: **** 1/2

Korean director Bong Joon-ho (The Host) is peerless when it comes to switching between tones, and Mother registers as another marvellous balancing act.

This story of a 65-year-old woman (Kim Hye-ja) trying to protect her mentally disabled son (Won Bin) after he's accused of murder is at once a probing treatise on maternal devotion, a tense police procedural and a pitch-dark comedy.

Bong is a cynic with a poet's eye: Mother features the most unsettlingly precise colour scheme since Eyes Wide Shut.

Source: Metro News CA

Hello witcherywoman, welcome to the forum!

From Vancouver Int'l Film Festival

Oct 12, 2009

'Mother:' A Must See

Howard Shumann rates "Mother" an A.

After a night of drinking, Do Joon (Bin Won), an intellectually-challenged young man, encouraged by his reckless buddy Jin-tae (Ku-jin), attempts to pick up a young high school girl Ah-jung walking home alone. Shockingly, the next day, Do Joon is arrested for the girl's murder as his mother looks on helplessly. Seen at the Vancouver Film Festival, Bong Joon-ho's Mother is an intelligent, suspenseful, and darkly comic revelation of the lengths to which an overbearing but deeply loving mother will go to pursue justice for her son who, she believes, has been wrongly convicted of murder.

Though there is an evocative score by Lee Byeong-woo, the film's use of ambient sounds such as the slashing of a herb chopper and the rustling of leaves add to an ominous mood, though it often clashes with the absurdist events seen on screen. Set in a small Korean town, the elderly mother, played by Korean TV star Kim Hye-ja in one of the most nuanced and emotive performances of the year, makes a living by selling herbal medicine and providing illegal acupuncture treatments. Convinced of her son's innocence, she will stop at nothing, even violence, to find the real killer. She learns details about the dead girl's personal life and talks to alternative suspects, even though even she is not fully prepared for the twists and turns that her investigation will take.

The film opens with a shot of a lone elderly woman walking in a vast expanse of open field, reminiscent of the opening shot in Shunji Iwai's "All About Lily Chou Chou". As she approaches the camera, the background music becomes rhythmic and the woman begins a strange, almost provocative dance. The scene then shifts to her business where she is keeping a close eye on her 27-year-old son Do-Joon who she feels needs her constant protection. Playing in the street with a dog, the boy is knocked over by a speeding hit and run driver in a Mercedes-Benz.

Uninjured, Do-Joon and Jin-tae chase the car to a golf course where the two attack the drivers of the Benz with sticks while collecting numerous golf balls, later to be used in evidence in court. On the fateful night, after Do-Joon is thrown out of a bar for being drunk, he pursues Ah-Jung home and the next day is arrested for murder, although details of what happened are murky.

Bong shows the police procedural as in "Memories of Murder" to be on the lackadaisical side and conveys the impression that everyone involved is only out for their self-interest, including police, lawyers, friends, junk dealers, and schoolgirls.

Reminiscent of the quirky, offbeat films of Alfred Hitchcock, "Mother" is an intense, witty, and engaging psychological thriller with enigmatic characters that do not just populate the screen but are vitally alive.

In one outstanding scene that will etch itself forever in your memory, Hye-ja attends the funeral of the girl her son is alleged to have murdered. Although besieged by distraught family members who think her son is a murderer, she has the fortitude to look them in the eye and proclaim "my son could never do something like that." Although "barking dogs don't bite," this woman is one "mutha" of an exception.

Source: eng.ohmynews.com