Mother is another one of the Korean cinema recommendations from my cinephile friend. This was directed by Bong Joon-ho who also made Memories of Murder which I really liked, though he is probably best known internationally for The Host. It also shares a number of superficial similarities with the former film.
Like its predecessor, this film is centered around murder in a small community. Once again, the police seem inexperienced and mostly incompetent, relying on coercion and violence rather than investigation and deduction. Finally, both films feature the mentally disabled in prominent roles.
Despite the film’s excellent cinematography and the neo-noir look, I started out being sceptical. Having an aged, single mother raising a fully adult but mentally disabled son feels like such a cheap shot, storytelling-wise. That the son hangs out with a ne’er do well friend and is accused of a horrendous crime seems to cinch it.
But my friend wouldn’t have recommended this if this were all that Mother had going on for it and as expected Bong manages to both surprise and shock. I won’t spoil the story here but suffice to say that it goes to very dark places and successfully subverts what you might expect its premise to be.
Indeed, one of the distinctive quirks about the film is that not a single character comes off well. We constantly observe characters acting in disreputable ways starting with the supposedly respectable professors who nonchalantly engage in a hit and run at the beginning of the film. This extends to even minor, seemingly inconsequential matters, such as Jin-tae lying about how he obtained the golf club.
The highlight of the film however is Kim Hye-ja’s superb acting as the unnamed mother. It’s astonishing how facial expressions and body language can sell what would otherwise be a very silly dance in an empty field. And of course it is to the director’s credit that he is able to coax such performances out of his actors and actresses.
Still while this is an all around excellent film, it relies heavily on misdirection and toying with expectations. As a member of the audience, I can’t quite help but feel cheated somehow, as if the rug had been pulled out from under me. For this reason, Mother definitely won’t be one of my favourite films even if it remains a praiseworthy and eminently watchable one.