She's one bad Mother....

Mother
Starring: Hye-ja Kim, Bin Won, Ku Jin
Director: Joon-hu Bong
Rating 4 (out of 5)

Summary: After her mentally disabled son is arrested for the murder of a local school girl, his Mother (Hye-Ja Kim) fights to clear his name and discover the identity of the real killer...

This will be remade in the next 18 months by some Hollywood hotshot fresh off a Honda commercial. It's inevitable. But before Hollywood producers get the chance to rip out the films heart and replace the able cast with whoever is willing to go farthest on the couch - take a look at the Korean original. It takes a simple whodunnit and turns it into a piece of accessible allegorical art for large audiences.

You see Mother is always keen to show the cultural esoteric quirks that Korean cinema revels in but they are dealt with in a way that doesn't overawe the slickly produced cinematography or detract from the engaging, suspenseful, gut wrenching and imaginative narrative. Director Joon-hu Hong repeats the feat he was able to achieve with his previous international hits The Host and Memories of Murder.

Another string to Joon-hu's bow is his ability to use the setting effectively, making the small town a hotbed of whispers and paranoid claustrophobia; the Mother's illegal, backstreet acupuncture sessions with local women the key to unlocking rumours and half truths amongst the locals. This is a town obsessed with revenge, honour and financial gain - hopefully all rolled into one easy transaction. It's a fantastic backdrop to a tale which deals with so many different issues such as Korean class systems and honour amongst thieves - it's as the very walls themselves were double crossing you.

Revolving around a Mother's unflappable dedication to her son, be it feeding him medicine or attempting to get him acquitted from a murder charge, the film is anchored with the fantastic performance of Hye-ja Kim as the Mother (and if you check out her imdb page it seems she's cornered the Mother market). Conveying a multitude of emotions with a great physical prowess, the performance is such that subtitles are incidental to the action taking place and the motivations for justice universal. Despite the more reserved nature of the character, Hye-ja Kim overshadows the potentially showy performance of Bin Won as her put upon son. However, he is able to get the right mix of inner torment and childlike motivations without disengaging the audience from the story unraveling bef0re him or treading into the realms of the Hollywood "simpleton".

If it's not too obvious from the above: Mother blew me away. Korean films are a lot more accessible to mainstream audiences than one might think and this is well worth you hard earned cinema going cash this weekend. Screenings will no doubt be limited but if it's on near you then give it a try as it will broaden your movie horizons and whet your appetite for a second helping of Joon-hu Bong's work - and if you don't get to see it then it's out on DVD on the 20th September so there really are no excuses.

OUT 20th August DVD 20th September