By Rosario Brenda Gonzalez
The Bong Joon- ho-directed Mother is the kind of crime drama that will make you glued to the screen for all those shots that may possibly lead to a breakthrough in the unfolding series of events. A teenage girl was murdered mobilizing the police to arrest the guilty party as public pressure mounted. Similar to the incompetent police authorities in another Bong’s movie Memories of Murder, those in Mother are likewise way out of the standard protocols and expertise expected of law enforcers. Without much evidence they arrested Do-joon, the 27-year-old son of an acupuncturist, the Mother that has no name in this follow-up film to Bong’s monster movie hit, The Host.
Produced at less than half the cost of The Host, Mother showcased the versatility of Bong in handling diverse genres yet retaining his trademark unique storytelling and top-grade acting. The mother in Mother is nothing like the mother that we are all familiar with. The much-revered South Korean actress Kim Hye-ja who is known for her roles of the typical nurturing and caring mother essayed a dark and mysterious character whose secrets would eventually lead us to the reasons why her relationship with her intellectually-challenged son was marked with distrust and betrayal. The story’s twists and turns maybe upsetting but kept us alert on the darkness that engulfs us all, notwithstanding our life’s role of care and love, whether maternal or otherwise.
Bong’s play on irony by making the “mother” of Korean cinema a possible nutcase further raises questions of how did that happen. This is where the strength of all Bong’s movies come to fore: the social commentary on how things come into being not as fateful events but results of many and interrelated social and economic factors. At the heart of this exposition is oftentimes an injustice to another person and the community at-large.
What was not seen on the screen but implied assumes power in this story penned by Bong Joon-ho and Park Eun-ho. Who takes care of the carers, mothers most especially? Society’s conditioning of what it is to be a mother and to be maternal has led to stereotypes yet the reality is mothers, like other people constitute different types of individuals.
Do-joon’s mother may have done everything possible to get her son out of incarceration for a crime she convinced herself was not committed by him, but it revealed more injustices, and that is where Mother has proven itself far more jolting and interesting than any other movie tackling themes of sacrifice and motherhood. It is by any measure buoyed up by the excellent acting of Kim Hye-ja, whom Bong convinced to take on the role after four years.
Mother was determined and persevering in investigating her son’s case what with an unqualified lawyer and bungling police men. She was cunning and quick to react to get her son out of jail, no matter the consequences. And her apparent descent into madness capped by a nonchalant and carefree coping strategy was captured skillfully by Kim Hye-ja onscreen making her win the Best Actress awards in more than 10 acting awards bodies including the 36th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.
Make way for Mother, a movie-watching experience worth your time. #
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Rosario Brenda Gonzalez is a long-time development worker who discovered South Korean films and television series during the pandemic. She was encouraged to review 18 South Korean movies, 2 South Korean television series, and 1 Japanese television series upon realizing that many of these tackled social issues in an informative and entertaining manner.
A BA Journalism graduate of UP Diliman, Ms. Gonzalez has been a project evaluator and development management trainer for more than three decades. Prior to that, she was a human rights and church worker.