Mother [Blu-ray]

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.

kept me guessing the whole time.

This is an absolutely amazing movie. A mother that will do whatever it takes for her son even though her son is a POS. The son gets locked up and the mother goes around investigating to prove her sons innocence of a murder they claimed he committed but what the mother comes to find will blow your mind. This movie is very deep and definitely worth a watch

Excellent murder mystery. A slow start but once it grabs you it doesn’t let go. A solid mix of humor and depravity if you like that sort of thing.

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.

Movie came in pristine condition. But yeah, I actually watched Mother a few days before I bought it, as I have with all Bong Joon-Ho films I’ve watched over the past year. Excellent film, you won’t regret it.