By Kyu Hyun Kim
Kim Hye-ja marvels in an overwhelming thriller
Small country town, Korea. Do-joon (
Won Bin, returning to the screen after four years of military service) is a pretty-faced young man, treated as a village idiot and perpetually causing minor havoc with his ne'er-do-well friend Jin-tae (
Jin Goo). Do-joon's devoted mother Hye-ja (
Kim Hye-ja) is left to clean up the aftermath.
Then one day everyone is stunned to find Do-joon arrested for the murder of a high school girl Ah-jung (
Moon Hee-ra). The evidence seems incontrovertible, but Hye-ja launches her own awkward investigation into the murder case, hoping to nab the real culprit. However, everyone in the town, including Hye-ja and Doo-jun themselves, seems to harbor some dark secret, threatened to be uncovered by her sleuthing.
While the film's plot and set-up superficially resemble Bong's based-on-real-life police procedural "
Memories of Murder",
"Mother - 2009" is even more emotionally shocking and devilishly manipulative of the viewer's expectations.
Director Bong spares no authority figure in his searing indictment of contemporary Korean society, all the more effective due to the black-comic tone it assu...
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