Mother

Director: Bong Joon Ho

2009 / 129min / 35mm

A magnificent Kim Hye-ja plays the title role in Bong’s noir-tinged thriller, the impoverished widowed mother of a quiet, mentally disabled 27-year-old (Won Bin) living in a village in rural South Korea who is forced to spring into action when her boy is accused of murdering a young girl, setting out on an investigation of her own in hopes of finding the real killer. An insidiously effective, gristly genre piece, a pointed work of social commentary, and an unforgettable evocation of the potentially malicious side of maternal devotion.

Part of Ethics of Care