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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mommy dearest..., July 27, 2010
While it took a while for me to really get into this film, I must say that it is still lingering in the back of my mind. This is a hard one to shake, and that is due in large part to a fascinating performance by Hye-ja Kim (think Imelda Staunton in `Vera Drake' without the happy-go-lucky overtones).
The film circles around an elderly woman's search for the truth regarding a murder that places her mentally challenged son in prison. Call it being at the wrong place at the wrong time (supposedly), but Yoon Do-joon finds himself behind bars when a young girl named Moon Ah-jung winds up dead and prostrated on a rooftop for the whole town to see. Do-joon's mother is convinced of his innocence (he couldn't even hurt a water bug) but circumstantial evidence places him at the scene of the crime and thus leaves her with only one option; investigate herself. Scrounging up the truth is a difficult task, and it may lead to answers she isn't ready to stomach, but it is something she needs to do, for herself and for her son.
I'm a really big fan of the film noir and so the tones taken in this film, especially the second half, really appeal to me. The darkness that encroaches on the films plot really flourish as the film progresses, and the conclusion is an emotional gut-punch of a very subtle kind, which I admire, appreciate and respect.
I don't really want to give too much of the films eventualities away, even though the discussion of the mother's motives and actions is eminent. Watching this film is a moral conundrum, and that is something that begs to be analyzed. What I will say though, is that the final moment, on the bus, is probably the most poignant in the entirety of the film for it really nails the mother's moral coffin so-to-speak. It reminds me a lot of how I felt at the end of `Oldboy', another Asian masterpiece. The wrongs committed and the evils known by the main character are almost justified by the viewer because of our emotional connection to the character, but when broken down and separated from the `situation' we find them inexcusable.
The mother's choice to `excuse' her actions is extremely provocative.
Color me a huge fan of Hye-ja Kim's performance in this film. It is a remarkable example of small yet powerful moments that culminate into very large yet realistically drawn explosions of emotional complexity. Her few scattered outbursts are flawlessly rendered to carry far more emotional weight than the manufactured dramatized theatrics seen in many films today. There is nothing mechanical or manipulative about this performance. You don't doubt for a single moment that this woman is this man's mother. You don't doubt for a second that she is determined to clear his name, no matter what the cost. You see every ounce of her pain and misery. It is etched all over her desperate face. What is nice though, is that she doesn't shield us from the softer spots in this woman's heart. Notice the smile she wears when speaking of the incident when her son was five. While it is a dark and disturbing incident, you can see that recalling her son in his youth brings her momentary joy.
She loves that boy, and Hye-ja Kim never forgets that.
`Madeo' is a fantastic film that may take a while to get into but is well worth the wait, for once it picks up it delves deep into the heart of paternal compassion and the need to save the ones we love.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mother knows best ... an exhilaratingly offbeat and dark new thriller from the director of "The Host" and "Memories of Murder", July 24, 2010
When her mentally challenged son is charged with a brutal murder, his mother sets out to prove him innocent. When the ordinary channels fail her, she increasingly takes things into her own hands, and is not afraid to get those hands dirty.
While there are scores of films about fathers out to protect and avenge their children who have been victims of a crime, this is the first that I'm aware of in which it is the mother who is out to defend the accused. It is a rich and inventive and, also, dark story, beautifully filmed and directed with subtlety, that offers a fresh look at the police procedural film.
This offbeat new thriller is sustained by a remarkable performance on the part of the leading lady (Hye Ja Kim as "The Mother"); all the other performances are strong, but the at once resolute and unhinged performance of the mother is something I couldn't take my eyes off, from the opening scene where she wanders through a field towards the camera, solemn and serious and suddenly breaks into a dance, to the magical ending on a bus. As with his previous films, Bong Joon Ho manages to convey memories and subjective point of view with a great deal of subtlety, in simple but inventive ways (such as a quick pan to someone who isn't there in the current scene but is being remembered from before). Highly recommended for lovers of inventive cinema, that explores the boundaries of genre in intriguing ways.
The dvd includes a fascinating documentary about the making of "Mother," which offers not only an intriguing look at director Bong Joon Ho in action, but especially emphasizes the importance of mothers in Korean society. The various participants talk about their relationships with their mothers, and a recurring theme is their sense of duty and guilt for having failed to show them sufficient honor. Tellingly, the lead character asked his own mother whether she'd be willing to go to the same lengths for him as his fictional mother in the story, and she responded that she would go even further. Bong Joon Ho explains that the core idea for this story, like that of "The Host," came from an actual incident; the television interview with the aging mother of a fully-grown son who was still living at home and had been accused of heinous crimes, left a deep impression. There are additional featurettes on the supporting actors, the production design, the music and the cinematography.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving, Taut, with Many Twists, January 7, 2011
This South Korean film about a young, mentally challenged man charged with murder has impressive acting and beautiful photography. Its opening image of the young man's mother trying to dance away her despair in a field is probably one of the most striking, evocative images you'll find on film.
It's a depressing film for much of its course though - depressing and disillusioning. It disabuses us of any of the stereotypes we might hold of Asian cultures as being somehow superior in politeness and quiet wisdom. Here almost all the town's people are swearing, angry, corrupt, cruel, indifferent, and ready to be triggered into mob violence. However the mother, touchingly portrayed by Hye-ja Kim, holds us riveted by her resolve to exonerate her son.
There is also tension and lurking menace everywhere here, enough to almost qualify this film as a psychological thriller. Everyone is either overtly intimidating, or, more chilling yet, subtly threatening. We are kept guessing who might have really committed the murder and draped the young victim in graphic display over a parapet wall.
The DVD is in Korean with English subtitles. The subtitles aren't a chore to read though because the dialogue here is often abrupt and sparse. So the reading doesn't interfere with the emotional impact of the film.
The extras on the disc are also worth viewing. The bonus features consist of a segment devoted to each of the main directorial talents that go into the making of a major motion picture such as this. We are introduced to the film's overall director, then to the director of photography, then to the musical director. We get to understand a little of what's involved in each facet of production.
The bonus segment showing how the musical score for the film was composed and recorded is especially interesting. The musical director decided to score the film with Western music, specifically with music that has the acoustic longing and lament of a Spanish serenade as its underpinning. The music invites us to dance with the vagaries of fate as our partner, and so sets just the right tone for the precarious, selfless odyssey of "The Mother."
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