Korean auteur Joon-ho Bong's latest, "Mother," combines the calculated suspense and sophisticated psychological thrills of his breakthrough work "Memories of Murder" (2003), with observations of East Asian motherhood gone over the edge.
There's so much about "Mother" that speaks to a Japanese audience: Even with the current low birthrate and women rising to executive positions in the workplace, the mother (so aptly and typically unnamed in the movie) in "Mother" hits us hard somewhere between the stomach and the heart.
One Japanese male critic coming out of the screening room sighed and then said in a voice close to tears: "She's a mother, and was just doing what mothers are supposed to do." That, after two solid hours of watching Mother (Korea's beloved TV actress Kim Hye Ja) work and slave and sacrifice her entire existence for the well-being of an idiot son. His statement recalls another in a series of conceptions about motherhood here: When women have babies, they stop wanting food or sleep for themselves by virtue of the maternal instinct conveniently kicking in. And they wonder why the birth rate has plummeted? Gimme a royal break! But oh well, that's another story.