Mother (2009 film)

Mother
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Bong Joon-ho
Produced by	Choi Jae-won Seo Woo-sik
Written by	Bong Joon-ho Park Eun-kyo
Starring	Kim Hye-ja Won Bin
Music by	Lee Byung-woo
Cinematography	Hong Kyung-pyo
Edited by	Moon Sae-kyung
Production company	CJ Entertainment Barunson
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment (South Korea)
Release date	16 May 2009 (2009-05-16) (Cannes) 28 May 2009 (2009-05-28) (South Korea)
Running time	128 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	US$5 million
Box office	US$17.1 million[1]

Mother (Hangul: 마더; RR: Madeo) is a 2009 South Korean drama film directed by Bong Joon-ho, starring Kim Hye-ja and Won Bin.

Plot

An unnamed widow lives alone with her only son, selling medicinal herbs in a small town in southern South Korea while conducting unlicensed acupuncture to the town's women on the side. Her son Yoon Do-joon is shy, but prone to attack anyone who mocks his intellectual disability. She dotes on him and scolds him for hanging out with Jin-tae, a local ne'er-do-well. When Do-joon is nearly hit by a car, he and Jin-tae vandalize the car and attack the driver and passengers as revenge. Jin-tae blames Do-joon for the damage done to the car, and Do-joon is sued. The debt causes Mother to struggle.

Late at night, Do-joon follows a high school girl named Moon Ah-jung into an abandoned building. The next morning, she is discovered dead on a rooftop, shocking the residents and pressuring the incompetent police to find the killer. Only circumstantial evidence places Do-joon near the scene of the crime. The police happily arrest the boy. He is then tricked into signing a confession, and faces a long prison sentence. Mother, believing him to be innocent, tries to find ways to prove he is not the murderer. However, she is unsuccessful, as the lawyer is unreliable.

Mother visits Jin-tae, who tells her that nobody should be trusted, as Ah-jung's body was placed from a point where everyone in the town could see it. Mother fires her lawyer and asks people around town about Ah-jung. They mention she was nicknamed "the rice cake girl," and that she liked boys. She was in a relationship with a boy who escaped a sanatorium known as "Crazy JP."

Do-joon is seen beating another prisoner who calls him "retard." Mother visits him about the matter, and Do-joon recalls a memory of Mother trying to kill him with rat poison when he was five. Mother tries to apologize, saying she wanted to free them both and offers to give him acupuncture to forget his pain, but he tells her not to see him again. She breaks down and is taken away.

Mother learns from a camera-shop worker that Ah-jung had frequent nosebleeds. Ah-jung's friend is attacked by two boys who are looking for Ah-jung's phone, but Mother rescues her. She pays Jin-tae to interrogate the boys, who confess that Ah-jung used her phone to secretly take pictures of the boys she slept with. These boys all gave her rice cakes in exchange. In his cell, Do-joon remembers seeing a man in the building the night of Ah-jung's death. He identifies one of the pictures on Ah-jung's phone, that of a white-haired elderly man. Mother remembers the man as the junk collector she bought an umbrella from when she was walking in the rain earlier. She goes to his home and asks him about what happened.

He says that he went into the abandoned building (presumably to sleep with Ah-jung, as he is seen gathering rice as payment to her) and saw a distraught Ah-jung followed by Do-joon. Do-joon curiously asked her questions, but she threw a rock at him and calls him "retard." Do-joon, instinctively attacking those who mock him, threw the rock back at her, which hit her head. He then dragged her to the rooftop. Do-joon is the one responsible for Ah-jung's death, leaving Mother horrified.

When the junk collector learns that Do-joon will be released and the case will reopen, he decides to report that Do-joon is guilty. Mother, fearing for her son, beats the collector to death and burns his house down.

Later, the police tell Mother that they found the "real" killer. He is Crazy JP, who had clothing with Ah-jung's blood on it. While it's possible the blood was from her nosebleeds, the police deduce that it was attempted rape. Feeling guilty, Mother visits JP and cries for him, knowing he is charged for a crime he didn't commit.

Do-joon is freed from prison. He investigates the junk collector's burnt house. During dinner, he says that whoever dragged Ah-jung to the roof was probably trying to alert others so they could help her quickly. As Mother departs to a bus station to go on a trip, Do-joon shows her acupuncture kit, which he found at the burnt site, and Mother tearfully leaves with it. On the bus, she gives herself acupuncture to forget her pain, and dances with the other passengers.

Cast

• Kim Hye-ja as Mother, an unnamed widow who is extremely protective of her son and attempts to free him from a false murder charge.
• Won Bin as Yoon Do-joon,^[2] the teenage son of Mother, who has an intellectual disability and is falsely accused for the murder of a girl.
• Jin Goo as Jin-tae, a local ne'er do well and one of Do-joon's friends. He bosses Do-joon around but agrees to help Mother free her son.
• Moon Hee-ra as Moon Ah-jung,^[3] a young girl who is murdered, leading the police to arrest Do-joon.
• Yoon Je-moon as Je-moon, the detective in charge of Ah-jung's murder case.
• Jeon Mi-seon as Mi-seon, a photo worker who met with Ah-jung before she died.
• Song Sae-byeok as Detective
• Chun Woo-hee as Mi-na, Jin-tae's girlfriend and Do-joon's best friend.
• Kwak Do-won as Charcoal fire man
• Kim Jin-goo as Ah-jung's grandma
• Lee Young-suk as Elder at junk shop

Release

Mother competed in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.^[4] Mother attracted 3,003,785 admissions nationwide and grossed a total of US$16,283,879 in South Korea, becoming the 6th most attended domestic film of 2009, and 10th overall.^[5][6] The film had its U.S. premiere in February 2010 as part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and received a limited U.S. theatrical release by Magnolia Pictures in March 2010.^[7] In March 2015 the film was re-released in the US, in the Pleasantville, New York based Jacob Burns Film Center, as part of the Bong Joon-ho Retrospective with The Host, Snowpiercer and Memories of Murder.^[8]

Awards and nominations

The film was selected as South Korea's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards.^[18]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Mother (2009 film)

• Official website
• Mother at the Korean Movie Database
• Mother on IMDb
• Mother at HanCinema
• Mother at AllMovie
• Mother at Box Office Mojo
• Mother at Metacritic
• Mother at Rotten Tomatoes