After only three films, including his international breakthrough The Host (2006), Bong Joon-ho’s slightly bent and always inventive approach to genre filmmaking has pushed him to the forefront of Korean cinema. Although Mother is a dazzling murder mystery, it’s also built on Bong’s reliable penchant for psychologically astute, character-centered storytelling. The single mother Hye-ja (played with fearless intensity by revered Korean TV star Kim Hye-ja) works at a pharmacy, and occasionally engages in illegal activities to make ends meet. Her raison d’etre, her mentally challenged beautiful son Do-joon (Won Bin), proves to be a constant source of anxiety. When a young teenage girl turns up dead, the police arrest Do-joon, pushing the boundaries of the mother-son relationship to the extreme. Beautifully shot by Hong Kyung-pyo, the film’s landscapes fuse with the heroine’s elemental force to overwhelming effect. Once again, Bong takes the conventional and transforms it into something extraordinary.

Rose Kuo, AFI Film Festival Programme