마더
Country of Origin: South Korea
Primary Audio Language: Korean
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Film Length: 2h 8m
Synopsis: A widow resides with her mentally challenged son in a small South Korean town, where she scrapes out a living selling medicinal herbs. Mother and son are plunged into a nightmare when the body of a murdered young girl is discovered. Circumstantial evidence indicates the son's involvement, and he becomes the prime suspect during the sloppy police investigation. Betrayed by the legal system, the mother takes the law into her own hands to clear her son's name.
Star Rating: ★★★★★
Review: As my semester draws to a close, marking an end to this blog, I chose to finish our journey around the world through foreign films, with one more movie from South Korea. I thought that would be an appropriate way to recognize May as National Asian/Pacific-American Heritage Month in the United States, and I chose this film by Bon Joon-ho, specifically, because he also directed Parasite, where we began this project together in the first place to bring things full circle.
As one of his earlier films, I definitely noticed a production difference, but I’ve reviewed older films here, and the story is engaging enough that you’ll become invested enough to totally forget about it by the end. This is an original and dramatic thriller centered around an unnamed older woman’s journey to prove her mentally handicapped son’s innocence when then local police accuse him of murdering a teenage girl. I found this incredibly compelling, as I can’t think of many (or any) similar movies where the protagonist is a middle-aged single woman, especially within this genre.
This quickly becomes a quiet, but suspenseful, murder-mystery as the mother begins her investigation, she proves she will stop at nothing, even violence, to discover the real murder and save her son, disclosing many surprisingly twists and a dreadful reality a long the way. As things unfold, even the relationship between the mother and son takes a surprising direction as he suddenly remembers an incident from his childhood.
Wrapped up with beautifully stylish cinematography and a tremendous score, it is overwhelmingly somber in tone and stands as an intimate testimony of the true dark limits of human behavior. Some parts are slower than others, and it is mostly a quiet anticipation that builds throughout the film, but it has a subtle way of truly involving the viewer in the storyline, but when the climax nears, it hits you with a quiet devastation that will shock you to the core.
Available On: Hulu
This project may be finished for now, but still feel free to comment below and let me know your thoughts on this film or share any of your own recommendations! Thanks for coming with me.
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