Shannon Watches Movies: Mother (directed by Bong Joon Ho)

Alright so this movie is what my boyfriend Aspen and I watched on Valentine's Day... and Wow. It gave us some emotions.

So this is a Korean movie that is an early movie by Bong Joon Ho- the Oscar Winning director of Parasite- its from 2009 and... omg it's a good one. We found a set at Barnes and Noble with 3 of his movies for $40 and we decided to get it because we wanted to watch these movies anyway. I believe the other movies in the trilogy are The Host and Barking Dogs Never Bite. Which I'm sure I'll have reviews on soon.

So Mother is about a single mother who's son Yoon Do Joon who is mentally disabled and the small town that they live in... pretty much everyone doesn't like him. A girl in the town that's about the same age as him is murdered... and the cops immediately connect it to Yoon Do Joon. Mother (yes- that's the actual name of the character) goes to find the real murderer... knowing her son is innocent.

My boyfriend described this movie as "haunting, slowburn." And that's what we felt watching it also. The first half of the movie we were like "this is too slow. I don't know if this is good. We probably won't watch it again." But when it ended... I was actually in suspense. Finding out who the killer was wasn't that surprising... It kind of is the simplest solution... but the events that happen after are... surprising. I wouldn't say this is your typical murder mystery.

Also without spoiling the end... the mother does find out things that she doesn't really want to know about her perfect son that she loves so much and about his friends. It's sort of a theme of the movie and she ends up doing things that she never wants the son to find out about... and he does somewhat find something that she did... and her reaction to that is... haunting and really great. I think I wasn't paying much attention to the part in the movie that mentioned why the ending is so dark but... my boyfriend was so... it was a good end.

The acting in this movie was also really good. The actress Hye-ja Kim was actually the inspiration behind the movie. She played a lot of wholesome mother characters on Korean TV Shows and this movie really showed her acting range. It was a really good choice.

Anyway I really liked this movie! I would watch it again and... yeah. I'm a fan. Is it as good as Parasite... it's a little more boring but I like it a lot.

Bye!

-Shannon