Amateur Recommendation Hour: Mother (2009 Korean Film)

Today’s recommendation is from my favorite Korean film director if not my favorite director in all the land. I remember the days when he was "my little secret" before a certain film catapulted him into the international spotlight. Rather than be a cinematic gatekeeper, I feel compelled and driven to bring to you as many works of his as I possibly can. As I have already recommended more than half of his entire filmography to date, expect to see more in the coming weeks and months. He will challenge your perception of how a film is supposed to be structured, how narrative is supposed to unfold, and how tone informs a film’s narrative beats.

The 2009 film Mother directed by Bong Joon Ho is masterfully shot, morally gray, and darkly humorous. All aspects I have come to expect of his works and he does them as well as anyone I’ve ever seen in filmmaking. There's a certain admiration I have for the fearlessness through which director Bong not only presents his themes and messages but through the lens which we see them presented. He captivates, fascinates, confuses, prods, and pokes as much as he possibly can to make the films that he wants to make, creating as unified of a vision for each of his works as I have ever seen. Almost as if he is directly transmitting his mental imagery to the silver screen. A silver screen that blurs grayer with each successive work. Not constrained to a rigid structure of genre or tone and what it's "supposed" to look, feel, and be like. He is the best kind of auteur that modern cinema has to offer.

A widow resides with her mentally challenged son in a small South Korean town, where she scrapes out a living selling medicinal herbs. The mother and son find themselves in a nightmare scenario when the body of a murdered young girl is discovered and the evidence implicates her son as the killer. As any loving mother would, she attempts to put her faith in those bureaucracy touts as the qualified and highest echelon of the society by which we live in only to find the cold hard reality that not only can they not be trusted, they cannot be relied upon either. In just as much, if not more disarray than our own lives. It's a quieter film than his previous efforts, certainly, but balanced and contrasted with cinematography in big moments that shrink the space down, smartly creating distance between us and the twisted events taking place. Creating a passenger-like dynamic between audience and events unfolding. You can only watch the car crash, no taking the wheel. It’s a labyrinthian darkness is supported by it’s muted, unsaturated color palettes reflecting the cold, and all-too-busy-to-care march of modern society at the peak of the technological boom. We’re fortunate enough to have people who care about us that would be willing to do just about anything for us. Especially a mother who feels empowered by a failing system with nothing to lose but challenging it with her own two hands.

From frame one Bong establishes what kind of film Mother is going to be. A cockeyed and off-kilter romp through a strange and emotionally distant surrounding of uncertainty and emptiness. How did we get here? How do we get out of here? More importantly CAN we get out of here, and do we even want to if the answer is yes?

Mother truly highlights as well of any of his films to date, director Bong’s outstanding ability to frame shots with an ensemble cast. To have an almost sixth sense of where to place each actor in relation to their role in the scene, narrative, and context of the situation, using foregrounding and backgrounding as masterfully as any director creating films in the world right now. Storytelling goes beyond the dialogue being spoken and the actions taken by each respective player, within the filmic medium how a director envisions a scene has the ability to tell us as much about narrative, theme, characterization, and tone as the more overt pieces of a story.

In terms of characterization it is the consistency, important moments of inconsistency, and believability that has stuck with me more than any of director Bong’s other works. Mother and son are both believable human beings with flaws and consistencies within their established traits, but the most well-written characters in fiction don’t tell us who they are through their established normal actions, but when they act outside of them. The son takes after the negative influences around him that he is unfortunately too genuine and impressionable to resist, but when given the chance to be good in those who look after his best interests, he always is. Similarly the mother is steadfastly loyal to her son in a world and society that sees him as disposable and unimportant, equal parts gentle and kind to him and others as well, but when tasked with defending him tooth and nail, that gentleness vanishes in favor of a cold, calculating woman who is out of her depth, atrocities in the name of love are on the table. To portray many different walks of life interacting with each other in ways that feel similarly to our own world whilst having a distinct artistic flair and muse is an indescribably difficult thing. 

My personal interpretation of this work is that it is a criticism of Korean society’s approach towards those with developmental disabilities and how when you are unable to count on institutions for adequate assistance the decisions you make will become more and more morally questionable. Going from law abiding victim to renegade vigilante, it's not like the fragile systems in place have given you a choice to do anything but take matters into your own hands. No matter how bloody they may become in the process, have they really given you any other option than to go purely on instinct, a loving one, so powerfully and aggressively loving. After all, he's all she really has left. The institutions of the world have failed to do their jobs, and the innately human, and in this case specifically, parental protective instincts are given precedence over anything regarding the trust that those in power expect us to have towards law, policy, or civil and functioning society. It could be any one of us in this situation.

It’s amazing how artists are able to do something that feels as random as creating good art seem like a science. Meticulously and intentionally crafted to say everything that was meant to be said exactly how they meant it to be said. Especially when it comes to a large scale project such as a film with so many incredibly talented artists in their own right working to support such an idiosyncratic and individual vision. There are very few artists working today in “the industry” that not only have the ability, but are given the time, resources, and most importantly of all, the creative freedom to pursue these meaningful, poetic, and poignant works that endure for generations to come. I feel very fortunate to live in a world where someone like Bong Joon-ho has the opportunity that he has to create what he wants to create with extremely dedicated people who are willing and able to support him in that endeavor. 

I can only hope that more people the world over are given these opportunities when  the chance arises. Art comes to life when unchallenged by those who seek to do no more than gain profit and market shares.