Mother – Joon-Ho Bong Korean Movie Review

‘Mother’ is the story of an over protective mothers’ (Hye Ja Kim) undying love and devotion for her mentally handicapped son (Do-Joon).

When her son is accused and arrested for the murder of a young school girl, Mother is the only one who believers her sons innocence, so sets out on a crusade to find the real killers and ultimately save her son from life in prison.

‘Mother’ is very much a ‘slow burning’ thriller, but your patience is well rewarded as the characters and the story truly grab the audience throughout. The tone is very much set right from the off in a very deliberate first scene in which mother is cutting herbs but at the same time trying to focus on her son in the distance…. (One false move on the cutter and … bye bye fingers!!) As simple as this scene is, it still manages to quickly create a small sense of suspense whilst instantly the audience understands the devotion mother has towards her son.

Bin Won plays Do-Joon, a slightly mentally challenged young lad who at times finds his mother overly protective yet still deeply for her.

Bin Won is famous for being the other brother in the excellent Korean War movie (Tae Guk Gi – Brotherhood of War); although Won brings little film experience to the role outside of ‘TaeGukGi’ he really is fantastic in ‘Mother’. In particular the brief scene in which Do-Joon is so shocked that he’s continuously opening and closing his mobile phone in confusion is both heartbreaking and thrilling to watch.

Do-Joon is accused of the horrific murder of a young school girl. Whilst there is some evidence to suggest that Do-Joon was in fact somewhere in the vicinity during the night of her murder; the local police force do very little digging into the real facts. The fact that this is the first murder case in the local town for many of the police force, they are very quick to come to conclusions and quickly fan away ‘Mothers’ cries for help when she believes that her son was framed.

Mother therefore seeks the help of a high powered celebrity lawyer but after viewing Do-Joon in jail the lawyer quickly recognises that this case will be more work then he originally thought, and soon drops the case; giving mother little advice.

Mother soon realises that the police and the lawyers will not help her, so sets out on personal quest to help find out what really happened to the young girl and help free her son. It is at this point that the film takes on a very interesting new persona. From being a very quiet gentle thriller, the pace quickly picks up as Mother takes drastic measures to piece together what really happened that night.

You cannot help but compare ‘Mother’ to Joon-ho Bongs earlier movie ‘Memories of Murder’ , the setting, pacing and even many of the story elements of the two films are too similar to ignore. Both films also come with a shocking conclusion.

Whilst similar in nature ‘Mother’ stands tall in its own right as a great example of well paced film making. Whilst many will find the first half of ‘Mother’ boring, those familiar with the movies of Bong and to a certain extent Hitchcock, well find the mix of drama and thriller an almost perfect blend.

Not only does Bong use the fantastic cinematography to help express feelings very the act of simply positioning the cinema, he also manages to get the best out of all of the actors. Not just the main actors either, the supporting actors whilst their roles are brief, do a fantastic job in carrying the story.

Whilst far from perfect; sometimes the movie drifts aimlessly into the weak back story of Mother and Do-Joon and also the needless extra characters and story arcs which whilst nicely put together do nothing to actually help the movie to progress and make sense, Mother is still a worth well watch and a credible addition to Bongs every growing list of stellar movies (The Host, Memories of Murder).

The fact Joon-ho Bong seems to be able to quickly shift focus so easily from blockbuster (The Host) to thriller (Mother) truly shows the quality of this director. You could argue that Bong is almost on par with Park Chan-Wook as one of Korea’s finest directors.

After a below par last few years for Korean cinema (in recent years I can only really think of ‘The Chaser’ and ‘Thirst’ as the only really high quality Korean films to have been released thus far) it is great to finally have a movie to make the rest of the world set up and pay attention to the quality of Korean film.

Bong’s next movie would you believe is a Sci Fi Movie (Drama, Thriller,Monster Flick, Sci Fi! ) At this rate Joon-Ho Bong could quickly become one of my favourite Asian directors.