Content area
Full Text
Mother
REVIEW BY MEGAN RATNER
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Country/Year: South Korea, 2009
Opening: March 12
Where: New York & Los Angeles
FROM A MONSTER TO MONSTROUS LOVE: Bong Joon-ho's followup to The Host (06) is a disquieting mother-son story starring veteran actress Kim Hye-ja as the film's shrewd, obsessed - and unnamed - title character: a single parent, small-town apothecary, and black-market acupuncturist. Playing her slow-witted 27-year-old son, Do-joon, Won Bin pads around like an overgrown puppy, completely dependent on his mother. Though Do-joon seems too hapless to be dangerous, the indolent local police pin a teenage schoolgirl's murder on him. Against huge odds and overcoming every obstacle, not least being her louche lawyer, his mother goes after the real killer. As in The Host and Memories of Murder (03) Bong, this time co-scripting with Park Eun-kyo, leavens the suspense with wry asides. He has something of Yves Klein's predilection for blue and a welcome fondness for deepfocus shots, yet the film wears its aesthetic sophistication lightly. Among other things, Mother is also...