NYFF 2009: Mother

Mother examines the bond between an overbearing maternal figure and her dim son, and although its tonal shifts are sometimes jarring and do not always work, Kim Hye-ja’s performance is a revelation

Bong Joon-ho / South Korea / 2009 / 129m

Unconcerned with proving the crime and punishment system of South Korea ineffectual, Bong Joon-ho’s Mother exists in a very similar community to his 2003 breakthrough Memories of Murder and also follows a similar procedural format. A love/hate relationship of genre filmmaking emerges, and the film is held together entirely by Kim Hye-ja’s performance as the mother of a mentally challenged young man who clearly would not be able to live without his mother.

Surrealism takes over the first few frames, as a woman is seen dancing in a vast field by her lonesome self. The camera observes this lady from a distance as she gets her groove on in a crazed manner. Enter Do-joon, the woman’s slow son, who, in the next scene, is hit by a Mercedes Benz on the side of the road. The mother comes to his rescue, claiming that he is bleeding when, in fact, she is actually the one who cut her own finger in her apothecary. Too distracted by her son’s wellbeing to care about her own, Do-joon’s mother is on the phone in the next scene trying to find out if he is okay. Do-joon is then accused of killing a local schoolgirl, and his mom sets out to solve the case herself and prove his innocence. Her search leads to Jin-tae, her son’s best friend, whose innocence is proven and who then assists her in her search for the real killer.

Bong’s shifts in tone, from slapstick comedy to familial drama to suspense thriller and back again, weaken the impact of the film overall. Thankfully, it ends gracefully on a high note with an elderly dance party on a bus in which Kim Hye-ja once again gets to show off her sweet dance moves. Known for playing caring mothers in numerous television series and films, Hye-ja shines in this beautifully understated and subtle role. The score, by composer Lee Byeong-woo, is powerful in appropriate dramatic scenes. All in all, the narrative works for the most part and Mother proves that the matriarch is the most important person in a boy’s life.