With the exception of Quentin You-Know-Who, I can't think of a filmmaker who handles and executes his work with such dizzying unpredictability as Bong Joon-ho.
The South Korean filmmaker has made only a few films (including the acclaimed, 2006 monster movie "The Host"), and the man has established himself as an auteur whose movies often defy categorization. This makes his new movie, "Mother" something of a chore to describe, especially when the only thing you want to say about it is that you should really, really, really, really, really (takes a sip of water), really, really, really go see it.
As you've probably guessed by the title, the movie is about a mother.
The mother is Hye-ja (veteran Korean actress Kim Hye-ja), a woman who makes her living chopping and dispensing herbs when she isn't giving acupuncture sessions on the side. She also dotes on Do-joon (Won Bin), her mentally peculiar 27-year-old son. She tries to keep an eye on him and makes sure he stays out of trouble. Unfortunately, he finds himself implicated in the murder of a young girl.
Despite the fact that he signs a confession, which sends him straight to prison, Hye-ja is not convinced that her son did it. Even though the police and the lawyer she hired say the case is closed, she launches her own investigation.
Just as he established when he made the creature feature "Host," Bong knows how to create distinctive genre pieces. And while "Mother" establishes itself as a murder-mystery, it's a very eccentric murder-mystery. The first half of "Mother" is more wacky than straight-faced, as the mom practically stumbles her way through, trying to clear her boy's name, even implicating Do-joon's hoodlum buddy Jin-tae (the icy Jin Goo), who ends up becoming quite integral to Hye-ja's investigation. The movie kicks into serious, suspenseful gear in the second hour, as Bong hits some impressively tense beats as our heroine gets closer and closer to the truth.
Suspense and humor
It's quite amazing how Bong has a flair for undercutting moments of unexpected terror and revealing drama with left-field humor, and still finds a way to keep the narrative balanced throughout. Even when he relies on familiar tropes (just as in "Host," "Mother" revolves around a dim-witted protagonist in trouble), Bong does what a lot of filmmakers can't seem to do: make the comic and the tragic exist evenly on the same plane. But "Mother" has so much more going for it; it's nerve-racking, horrifying, surreal, sordid, absurd, action-packed and, not that surprisingly, quite moving.
With all this happening, Bong still keeps the movie's earnest foundation - the bond between mother and son - impressively intact. Even with all the well-executed insanity taking place (the movie begins and ends with Kim's harried, haunted matriarch literally dancing her pain away), "Mother" is ultimately about how taking care of your offspring, even when they're old enough to take care of themselves, can be a blessing, a burden and a curse.
"Mother" is perhaps the most honest take on parenting you'll ever see.
