Mother – Review

There’s always that question of how far a mother would go in order to protect her child. This is the kind of dilemma that Hye-ja (Kim Hye-ja) is faced with in Mother, a murder mystery that centers around her son Do-joon (Won Bin), who’s arrested for a crime that she’s completely convinced he didn’t commit, stopping at nothing to find out who really killed Moon Ah-jung. With twists and turns, great direction and great performances, your guessing until the very end.

Bong Joon-ho is already some what known over here in the States, mainly for his written and directorial work for The Host. Park Eun-kyo and Joon-ho both do an equally successful job conjuring up a completely clever and engaging mystery thriller. A film cannot stand on writing alone, and that’s where Joon-ho swoops on in with his distinctive style of direction as he brings us through this labyrinth of questions and answers as Hye-ja desperately looks for the truth. It goes hand in hand with the outstanding performance from Kim Hye-ja who helps carry the film with her own charisma and energy.

The cinematography is simple to a certain degree but with Joon-ho’s direction it’s taken to a new visual plane. The feature clicks perfectly on so many levels that once you start watching you cannot stop until the very end, which comes in as quite a shock in the best way. The back drop, the characters, the story, everything just meshes well with this film.

Bong Joon-ho is a director that a lot more people should keep their eyes on, not only for his imaginative and gripping tales, but for the way he handles each film with care. Mother is one film that you definitely should not miss.

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