Madeo (Mother) (2009)

Bong Joon-ho is proving himself incapable of making a bad movie, yet again hitting it out of the park with his newest feature Mother, a twisted murder mystery. The unnamed Mother (Kim Hye-ja) has a very close, presumably incestuous relationship with her son Do-joon (Bin Won), a twentysomething with serious memory problems and the demeanor of a boy half his age. When a golf ball with his name on it is found next to the scene of a high school girl's murder, Do-joon is immediately assumed to be the killer.

He doesn't exactly remember what happened that night, but insists he didn't kill her, and of course his mother believes him without question. With the police convinced of his guilt, Mother takes it upon herself to find the real killer, and slowly unwraps the layers of sex, voyeurism, and conspiracy surrounding the dead student. As her investigation goes further, the reserved, gentle Mother finds herself sinking deeper into criminal acts in order to save her son.


Mother is an intense, gripping thriller with a good amount of twists and turns to keep viewers on their toes. It's a bit long, but never dull, and the characters are very well-written and developed. These factors are enough to make it an excellent film, but what really elevates it to greatness is the refreshingly new choice of protagonist. In a genre typically dominated by younger, mainly male, actors, it was so cool to see an older woman as the lead. Mother is resourceful, stubborn, and extremely dedicated, and she artfully uses her status as a "frail old woman"-type to go unhindered about her investigation. Completely anchoring the film, Kim Hye-ja is fascinating in her performance, oscillating between painfully demure to shockingly aggressive in a span of seconds.

Once again utilizing a rainy rural setting for his tale, Bong incorporates a combination of vast empty landscapes and tight interior spaces for a visually diverse and tonally effective aesthetic. He structures the story with several ambiguous or seemingly irrelevant moments at the beginning that come together and are expanded upon brilliantly by the end, which makes for a very smart and surprising narrative. Mother contains all of the elements of an engaging and intelligent murder mystery, but with its considerable attention to character and its unique protagonist, it becomes a masterful fusion of emotional drama and taut thriller.

4.5/5