The rural South Korean town in Joon-ho Bong’s Mother is a dark, ominous place for the film’s setting. The weather is always rainy or overcast, the town’s hills are covered with tombstones and soggy debris, the residents constantly lurking in alleyways or suspiciously peering out windows. It’s a town full of secrets, but Bong doesn’t distract us with superfluous details. Instead, he focuses Mother on a single crime: the brutal rape and murder of a young woman. That the investigation of this horrifying incident opens up the floodgates of conspiracy should not come as a surprise. This is, after all, a small-town murder mystery, which wouldn’t be complete without a bit of communal culpability.
And yet, Mother is much richer than it might seem at first blush. The film’s main character, an obsessive mother (played by Hye-ja Kim), unravels as she attempts to prove that her mentally-challenged son has not raped and bludgeoned their neighbor to death. Delving beneath the townspeople’s serene exterior, she stumbles upon a web of violence and corruption, ultimately putting herself and the son she so desperately tries to protect in grave danger.
Despite its simple premise, the film’s plot proves complex, serving as a springboard for Bong’s reflections on power, truth, and the limits of love. The director, aware of the scenario’s conventional nature, avoids obvious tropes by focusing on the characters rather than the investigation. Accordingly, the linchpin of the Mother’s success is Hye-Ja Kim’s astounding performance. During her interactions with unethical cops and amoral businesspeople—all of whom the community considers pillars of integrity—she conveys a perfect mixture of courteousness and outrage. She expertly crafts her character’s emotional attachment to her son into a relationship that toes the line between tenderly endearing and disturbingly Oedipal.
Both the presence of evil and intense family relationships are themes Bong explored in his last film, the witty and subversive The Host. But the difference between The Host’s antagonist, a monster gobbling up Seoul, and Mother’s much less tangible culprit, the machinations of corrupt authority, keeps the director’s latest film from feeling like a retread.
While there is an overriding ethical commentary, the film avoids becoming a sermon on morality. Rather, Bong infuses Mother with tension and excitement, employing classic Hitchcockian rules of suspense without Americanizing his material. Mother’s social criticism is aimed directly at South Korean society, yet it resonates with the same power as American films of the same genre, with its characters unwittingly spiraling into inescapable madness. Unlike many American directors, Bong meticulously establishes theme and character, inviting the audience to connect with the characters and share the agony of their misfortunes. When the film’s final twist is revealed, we feel more enlightened than deceived. With this masterful work, Bong and Kye-ja Kim prove that even small town families can become entangled in large-scale conspiracies.
