Mother [Region 4]

On the basis of just four feature films so far, Bong Joon-Ho has emerged as one of the major filmmakers in the world. As such, his is a profoundly anti-humanist and anti-spiritual voice. What has always been fascinating (and to those who cling to humanism or spirituality, repellent) about his films is the rejection of BOTH Western secular humanism and Eastern "spirituality". Bong Joon-Ho unapologetically uses all of the resources that film has at his disposal. But he is a true artist, and his nihilistic vision is uncompromisingly and entirely his own.It has been said before, but it is worth repeating: He uses the most conventional genre elements in all of his films, freely deploying Hitchcock, the great films of Hollywood's Second Golden Age, especially film noir, the French New Wave, and even Spielberg on the one hand while simultaneously evoking the more independent, open-ended, and adventurous art films of the Japanese masters Kurosawa and Ozu and a great director/mentor like Hou Hsiao-Hsien on the other. In "Mother", the use of extended panoramic long shots that reduce the human figures to dots in the breathtakingly beautiful landscape will remind viewers of Kurosawa while Bong Joon-Ho's equally masterly use of private, constrained, "locked-in" space is pure Ozu.I am not suggesting that Bong Joon-Ho is a derivative stylist. On the contrary, he is a deeply rewarding artist. I am saying that in his case, the originality is achieved by using the recognizable, even conventional modes of narrative filmmaking in order to create, not just allude to, another world, another universe. On the surface, that universe appears to be rural Korean society. But in the broadest, most relevant sense, it is implicatively every "country" society that is trying to come to grips with a now-dominant "city" ethos. His subject is the severe personal and social dislocation that results from the often unbearable tension between an Old Order that is under immense pressure from the new order, Modernity, cell phones, school-girl prostitution ring and all.Bong Joon-Ho's protagonists are not just "imperfect" people (we all are). They are crazy (most of us are not). "Mother" is a madwoman, who implodes and is driven completely insane by two ultimately unbearable forces: Internal, namely a mother's abiding and unconditional love for her son that supersedes all other human values for her; and external, namely a society's rapidly changing values that she gradually uncovers for herself but never ever fully comprehends. Alternating between vast landscapes and tiny spaces to convey Internal versus External is almost flawlessly realized by Bong Joon-Ho with exquisite subtlety, measure, and grace. He was, like Bertolucci, born to be a filmmaker, that is, a master conjurer of images in all possible scales.The typical complaint about not finding a single character in any of Bong Joon-Ho's films that one can "relate to" and "empathize with" is a humanist impulse that Bong Joon-Ho deliberately frustrates. He does not want you to feel sympathetic to any of his characters simply because he does not either. He wants you to see them for who they are, alienated and alienating human beings who represent not just Korean society in transition but all human beings in our Modern Age.Compared to Bong Joon-Ho, Hitchcock was a humanist despite arguments for his being a ground-breaking anti-humanist (which I believe are misinformed). Hitchcock worked within a humanist sensibility that believed in resolution and made everything satisfyingly "right" in the end. "Mother" offers no closure or happy endings whereas in case one has conveniently forgotten it, EVERY Hitchcock film, however unnerving and including "Psycho", does.I do not wish to give away the story as a courtesy to those who have not seen the film. Besides, the synopsis available on Amazon and from other perceptive reviewers here is sufficient. All I will say is that "Mother" offers aesthetic pleasure of the highest kind still possible from contemporary cinema, an otherwise debased and degraded art form for the most part. It is lazy writing to call this simply a Korean "Mommie Dearest". It is much, much more than that, a great film, which "Mommie Dearest" is not."Mother" is the most disturbing film Bong Joon-Ho has made thus far, and one of the most disturbing films one is likely to see. It is indispensable.

Mother is an entertaining, interesting, innovative, and sophisticated film. It is a movie about human nature and how humans deal with their guilt. This movie should have received Oscar recognition. The movie starts out with a middle aged woman dancing and ends with the same woman dancing. The rest of the movie explains what led to this. I have to say the actress is magnificent and kudos to the film makers for choosing this actress over more recognizable actresses. The whole movie is pretty much the actions and reaction of this woman over her adult son who is a little mentally challenged. Or is he? The story builds and the biggest twist is what caused him to become challenged.

This is about a woman whose son, who doesn't appear to be all there (this may be a portrayal of some form of autism or something similar), is framed for a murder and who then decides to catch the real killer herself.She is a very protective mother, constantly hovering over her son, something he appeared to me to be getting tired of. She also gets quite frantic over the course of the film.The investigation is very well handled: false starts, true starts, unpleasant facts found, and so on. It definitely kept my interest throughout.Although the ending was a bit much. Still, I certainly understood what happened.

If you don't know the work of South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho you definitely should. After the masterpiece that is Memories of Murder, the great The Host He's definitely followed up with his best film to date, a dark thriller that continues his ability to mix comedy and horror with an absolute brilliant tone in his writing and characters acted perfectly.The tone is what I like about Bong's movies. From the moment the titular Mother walks out of a field and does an improptu dance over the credits you should be able to discern this fact. Unlike the previous Bong movies this is a more measured and quiet film compared to the others as well following the mother along her investigations as to whether her mentally dim son actually killed a school girl who herself might have had incriminating photos on a phone that got her killed. Along the way she gets one of her sons thugish friends (who she initially thinks could be the killer) to interrogate two boys, and fights with her son when He remembers that she tried to kill him when He was five. Where the story goes is a revelation of the mothers crumbling psyche and regret she has over past issues.Apparently Bong wrote the film after knowing Kim Hye-ja for several years and she definitely performs the her part well as a sad little woman who has outbursts that mirror her sons violent reactions. The whole cast is just excellent though mixed with a set of actors returning from Bong's previous films my favorites being Jin Gu as Jin Tae, the sons friend and Yoon Jae-Moon as the weary detective investigating the movie.In the end everything works because of Bong's direction and writing from the humor to the horror. The pacing of the movie is perfect creating one of the rare thrillers that doesnt feel the need to mistake noise for thrills, and ends not on an action sequence but a sequence of regret played on someones face, kind of like Memories of Murder.If you haven't seen this movie, do so soon. It as all of Bongs movies are well worth your time.For fans of the movie the Blu-Ray is thankfully well produced. There have been stirrings online about image issues between the original Korean Blu vs. Magnolia's in the area of contrast boosting but aside from some aliasing I didn't really see any problem with it. Soundwise the disc definitely gets excellent marks from me. Extras are also extensive with numerous featurettes ported from the Korean disc and subtitled like a making of, one of Kim Hye-ja, extras casting, the cinematographer and music composer. For fans of the movie this is the disc to buy, supplemented by an excellent set of features.

Just an incredible movie! Motherhood itself is insane

La película es de las mejores que he visto del cine coreano.El envío fue muy rápido y llegó en perfecto estado

« Mother » est l’histoire de l’amour inconditionnel d’une mère pour son fils, simple d’esprit accusé – à tort ? – du meurtre d’une jeune fille du quartier. Au-delà de la simple enquête menée par des policiers aux capacités limités, qui fait que c’est la mère qui coûte que coûte mènera par la force des choses mènera l’enquête, « Mother » est avant tout une critique sociale d’une société faite d’injustices et une description de la solitude des laissés pour compte, la mère ne pouvant sur(vivre) que pour l’amour qu’elle porte à son fils. Le jeu de l’ensemble des acteurs est grandiose, dans un style à la fois épuré et réaliste.Chaque scène du film se propose de surprendre le spectateur en renouvelant son attention en le prenant là où il a baissé la garde. Et la surprise ne se loge pas seulement à l’échelle (grande) de la narration et de ses rebondissements, mais également dans le (plus petit) détail du plan, où une foule d’éléments incongrus, burlesques, drôles viennent se loger, comme pour faire contrepoids à la gravité de l’ensemble.Encore un grand film de Bong Joon Ho, qui réussit une fois de plus à mélanger les genres.

Mother adopts a wicked fluctuating screenplay that relentlessly nurtures its characters. Joon-Ho, of 'Memories of Murder' fame, imports his infamous dark humour into another murder mystery. However, instead of instantly replicating the aforementioned triumph, he alters the perspective of the investigation to be that of a lamenting mother. The results indicate that South Korean cinema is quite possibly the best exports for thrillers in the entire world. Let me go ahead and put that subjective statement down as fact. I've seen enough of them to know that Korean directors understand the genre through and through, with Mother reaching the top echelon. A hard-working widow strives to prove the innocence of her intellectually disabled son, who has been framed for the murder of a young girl.Ravenously exploring the concept of how far a mother is willing to go for their own flesh and blood, Joon-ho's script is packed with an alluring sense of unpredictability and poetic thrills that present a darker side to South Korean culture. When the opening cinematic sequence is of the titular parent eerily dancing to a pop song in the middle of a wheat field whilst looking directly at the camera for five minutes, well, you start to develop an idea on what type of film this is. Joon-ho cleverly throws the audience off target on multiple occasions, to showcase a variety of different emotions and themes that our unnamed mother experiences throughout her arduous journey. Pain. Melancholy. Anger.His consistent juggling of tones, a trademark he has essentially acquired throughout his filmography, allow us to feel these emotive consequences with the protective mother. In just one scene, most notably the prison visitation, Joon-ho injects sorrow from the mother's perspective, unshaken trepidation from her son and hilarity from the actions taken whenever someone says "retard" to him. Occasionally, it does relinquish the intended tone in order to make room for dark humour, but for the most part it provides a refreshing interpretation of the genre. To keep a story engaging, thrilling and suspenseful whilst making it intelligently humorous is quite the achievement. There were multiple scenarios where I certainly did gasp in shock and horror over certain plot details, proof that Joon-ho has crafted yet another captivating mystery.It must be said though, none of the above would've been as effective if it wasn't for Hye-ja's unprecedented performance. Phenomenal. Absolutely incredible. She commanded every scene through her ornate acting that exhumed fragility, power and sentimentality. Tackling the case head on, despite the detectives rarely caring about the situation, in what must've been a physically and emotionally demanding performance. Bin also gets a mention for his engrossing role as the accused son. From a technical standpoint, it's flawless. Joon-ho's directing techniques, Kyung-pyo's cinematography and Byung-woo's score. Sensational, with each element enhancing the dark world that Joon-ho has lovingly created.This rollercoaster definitely deserves your attention. You'll laugh at the dark humour, bite your nails during thrilling sequences (although didn't your mother tell you that's a bad habit!), and empty your soul during the third act. Mother, yet again, is another example of pure South Korean cinema at its finest. It still hasn't convinced me to experience acupuncture though...

An exceptional work-of-art, a remarkable achievement. This is definitely a must for every film-lover's collection.

Otra extraordinaria película de Bong Joon-Ho, totalmente recomendable. En cuanto al soporte, en mi caso blu-ray, hay que decir que nos ofrece una alta calidad de imagen, una edición sencilla, sin muchos extras, y la posibilidad de ver la película doblada al castellano o en su versión original en coreano subtitulada en castellano. La caja es de buena calidad y protege bien el disco.En resumidas cuentas, muy recomendable para seguidores de Bong Joon-Ho y para amantes del thriller en general. El director coreano, con su característica forma de ver el mundo, con esta película le da al cine de suspense otra vuelta de tuerca, aunque sin llegar a los extremos de su obra maestra "Memories of Murder". No obstante, si te gustó esta última, te gustará sin duda "Mother".