Mother – Review

Mother is a cockeyed version of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Do-joon (Bin Won), a modern Korean version of Norman Bates, suffers from developmental difficulties, an overactive libido, and an enmeshed relationship with his mother (Hye-ja Kim, in an emotional tour de force performance). Though nominally employed as an herb vendor and erstwhile acupuncturist, mother’s main occupation is keeping tabs on her boy. Twice in the film, she sprints after cars that whisk him away. So much is her attention that mother and son continue to sleep in the same bed. When a young woman is murdered, Do-joon becomes the fall guy and the nameless mother morphs into an undiluted mix of Columbo and Rambo. She pursues endless leads, clumsily knocks over objects and bodies in her way, asks questions no one wants to hear (especially the police), interrogates witnesses and eavesdrops behind a curtain like Hamlet‘s Polonius—all in order to piece together a complicated puzzle. That we all knew our mothers before we understood language under girds the emotional gravity of this film. If “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” this mother ups the ante.

The film showcases dichotomies in today’s Korea: poverty vs. wealth, power vs. impotence, appearance vs. reality, Zen vs. sudden violence, and the ancient (herbs, tea, and silver acupuncture needles) vs. the modern (miniature cell phones and Benzes). Like Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, the solution to this mystery hinges upon a new modern technology. To return to the Psycho theme, the music is jarringly discordant at critical moments and gives nod to Bernard Herrmann’s persistent use of strings fifty years ago. Director Boog Joon-ho (also of the award-winning The Host) employs flashbacks in a variety of inventive ways, including dream-like sequences, sped-up film, and blurred images. Mother serves up a cinematic feast, feeding an appetite for intelligent, adult fare.

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