Hye-ja Kim, Bin Won, Ku Jin
At once nail-bitingly tense and brimming with humanity, Korean director Bong’s (Memories of Murder and The Host) terrific film comes fresh from sweeping the Asian Film Awards’ with a hat-trick of Best Film, Best Script and Best Actress.
This taut, unsentimental, Hitchcockian (and for once this really applies) dissection of a mother defending her son at all costs remains consistently unpredictable right up to its supremely satisfying climax. When Kim Hye-ja’s nameless mother of the title discovers her 27 year old son has been arrested for murder, she obsessively sets out to track down the real killer and prove her son’s innocence at all costs.
Worth the admission alone for its life-affirming book-end dance sequences, this is a tour-de-force from a filmmaker at the very top of his game. A gripping blend of thriller and melodrama that took Bong’s already considerable skills as a filmmaker to a whole new level.
