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Monday 23 August 2010

Film - Mother - directed by Bong Joon-ho


Star rating – 3/10

I went along to this Korean offering from Bong Joon-ho with the promise of slick Hitchcockian style suspense film, but came away just feeling that I had wasted a couple of hours of my life. I am afraid simply having a couple of plot twists does not get anywhere close to Hitchcock. ‘Mother’ is just plain depressing.

It is set in a small Korean town, and follows a mother and her 27 year old son, who has learning difficulties. She is unhealthily attached to him, even taking into account his disability, going so far as to share the same bed. He gets into trouble whilst having too much time on his hands, and is eventually arrested for the murder of a schoolgirl. His mother then seeks to prove his innocence, and will stop at nothing to do so.

One of the many problems for me with this film is that absolutely none of the characters had any redeeming features. I didn’t empathise with any of them. The film is shot with a very grey palette, so not even the scenery was easy on the eye. Everyone was a bad guy in one way or another. The plot was confused and confusing. And some of it just did not add up, so I found it impossible to suspend disbelief and get into the plot. This does not add up to a great suspense film in my book so do yourself a favour and don’t believe the hype.

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