In Bong Joon-ho’s latest film, Mother (aka Madeo), Hye-Ja (Kim Hye-Ja) is a herbalist and an unlicensed acupuncturist in a small rural town who has a mentally-challenged son named Do-Joon (Won Bin). One day, a local high school girl is found murdered at the roof of an abandoned building and Do-Joon is arrested based on circumstantial evidence. Detectives coerce him to sign a confession and he is quickly imprisoned. The lawyer offers little help, so Hye-Ja, distraught and convinced that he is innocent, searches for the real killer herself, uncovering many secrets from the townspeople.
I have always loved Bong Joon-ho’s feature efforts. Barking Dogs Never Bite was a clever dark comedy about a professor trying to get rid of a neighbor’s yapping dog; Memories of Murder, about a true life serial murder case in a rural town, was a haunting masterpiece; and The Host was a fun monster flick that satirized government intervention. His films are full of irony, intense thrills, and satirical jabs at society. They are multilayered and are visual marvels. Mother, his fourth feature film, goes into darker territory. It’s a crime thriller like Memories yet smaller in scale and visuals. I’ve often admired Bong’s subtle uses of humor in his films—they add texture to his films. While Mother is not devoid of humor, there’s noticeably less.
The film’s environment is harsh, economically and visually. The film starts off slow, letting us in on the inhabitants of the rural town and the characters of Hye-Ja, her son Do-Joon, and Do-Joon’s hoodlum friend, Jin-tae. Kim Hye-Ja gives a strong performance as the Mother of the title. There’s desperation in her that’s compassionate, a little overbearing, and a little “off.” The lengths she goes to clear her son’s name is sympathetic but sometimes unsettling, which works to great effect in this thriller as she is put in dangerous situations. Won Bin, who has played a slow-witted character before (Guns & Talks), plays Do-Joon with good balance.
Unlike Bong’s previous films, many of the side characters here are tough to fully like. They’re all a little shady, which often places Hye-Ja fending for herself. Once the film picks up, it pretty much doesn’t let go. Hye-Ja’s investigation leads her to many suspects, dead ends, a possible weapon, the victim’s family, thugs, and teen prostitution.
Whenever a movie deals with subjects like teen prostitution or something equally lurid, I can’t help but feel turned off by it, as films can sometimes feel exploitative. To a certain point, it was rather unsettling for me. While most elements in this film are not as shocking as Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy, I can still perhaps say Mother could be considered its second cousin. It's not a happy movie. Luckily, while there are plenty of twists, Bong is not interested in shocking the audience as much as slowly tightening the grip on the audience’s throat, if you will. Much like Shutter Island, it was a rough experience most of the time. It is an unconventional thriller, which must’ve done its job, since it caught me by surprise.
At the end, I felt like I went through a hard journey, although Bong’s handling of the film is somewhat more cerebral than heavy-handed. Things aren't very simple in his films. Like his other works, the characters appear to be metaphors of certain attitudes toward society, and thematic elements of filial loyalty vs. moral choices are analyzed. Overall, while I consider this film the least among Bong’s works, I enjoyed the strong performance by Kim Hye-Ja and was suprised by Bong’s unusually sharp-edged approach. *** out of ****
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