Mother (2009)

For my money some of the best and most exciting cinema of recent years has come out of South Korea, while the release of Oldboy did much to bring the nation to people's attention there is still little mainstream recognition for much of the region's recent output. This is understandable, but still a crying shame. Joon-ho Bong, director of the excellent Memories of Murder sticks to somewhat familiar territory with his latest, it's another murder mystery of sorts, but rather than detailing the case from the police perspective we follow the titular Mother (the remarkable Hye-Ja Kim) whose son is accused of murder after a drunken night out. To complicate matters her son Yoon (Bin Won) suffers from relatively severe learning difficulties and is easily coerced into an admission of guilt. With no-one listening to her pleas of innocence Mother sets about investigating events on her own, her dogged determination testament to the guilt she harbours for her sons upbringing and situation.
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Mother opens bizarrely and only goes on from there, it's lack of conventional plotting and mixing of genres (police procedural, dark comedy, family drama) is typical of this new Korean generation of films and Joon-ho Bong shows a masterful sense of control over film right up until the final, haunting frames. The acting throughout is fantastic, as mentioned Hye-Ja Jim is mesmerising as the Mother, her obsession and fear are tempered by a vulnerability that keep her empathetic despite some of the extreme lengths she starts to go to as the film progresses. Bin Won as her son is equally impressive, he embodies Yoon with such humanity and childlike innocence but he never takes the easy, clichéd option, instead creating a much more layered character than I was expecting.
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As seems to often be the case with the recent Korean output the film is gorgeous, the naturalistic tone of the run down neighbourhoods balanced by the sweeping cornfields that bookend the film. Most of all this is a film that exudes confidence throughout, it's a bold thought provoking story that kept me hooked throughout.