2009, South Korea
Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
READ THE REVIEW AT The Desert Sun.
Something wicked this way comes, but with director Joon-ho Bong, it comes with a sense of humor. His latest film, Mother, channels "Twin Peaks" by way of South Korea in this small town murder mystery. Instead of Agent Cooper, an obsessively devoted mother investigates every clue in order to clear her son's name.
Bong follows up his cultishly popular sci-fi film, The Host, with this microcosm of oddity. The dark comedy is quirky as dimwitted grown son Yoon Do-joon (Bin Won) lives a little too closely with his mother (Hye-ja Kim, who won the Asia Pacific Screen Best Actress Award for this role) and is easily led astray by troublemaking friend Jin-tae (Ku Jin). Everyone pushes Yoon to be with a girl, though this is the last person who should risk reproducing. It is this drive which leads him to a dark alley, following a girl who would appear slung over a balcony the next day -- dead.
Police assume that a golf ball signed by Yoon and inconveniently found near the body is a calling card, and they quickly coerce a confession from him. Knowing that her son does not realize the gravity of the situation and has a habit for forgetting details -- such as where he was, what he was doing -- Mom ignores the closed case status and begins sleuthing. No one is immune from her accusations when her beloved misfit is in peril.
The humor envelopes the characters, each of whom casually dismiss the case aside from mommy dearest. The cops are impressed that their town finally has a murder to tout, identifying it as "CSI and all that." In the holding cell, a detective demonstrates William Tell-style sepak takraw moves, resulting in the mother passing out flyers protesting apple-biting human rights. Logic is loose and humorously flawed when Bong takes the reins of a film.
A mother driven by love has no qualms about utilizing unscrupulous methods to divulge the right answers. She bribes sources with herbs and acupuncture sessions and is not above making shady deals. She persuades school boys to discuss the victim with carefree trash talk, speaking ill of the dead with slurs that extend beyond their baby faces. As Mom inches towards the truth, morality slips away.
Mother displays a carnival town thinly veiled in normalcy. The humor is freewheeling and yet so subtle as to be mistaken for absurdity. Bong once again displays his skills for conveying the weirdness that is buried and ultimately unearthed in everyone.