Mother
Today, an old man walked up to me and asked me for directions. As usual, I expect people to speak Chinese to me, but he didn’t. My first thought was that this language sounds familiar so it must be Japanese… but no, then he went on asking me if I was not Korean! Wahahahaha. I have officially turned into a kiwiaboo now, though the number of Korean films I am watching is still nothing compared to the many Japanese series I have seen.
The small number of films ensures that I end up watching great films most of the time, and “Mother” is no exception. The story is dramatic and I don’t even want to go into the details because the plot twists are pure brilliance. At the end of the day, the solution to the mystery was amazingly simple and loaded with fore-shadowing, but the revelations along the way are what makes the film so suspenseful and gripping. Personally I thought the beginning of the film was a little bit slow and I was just waiting to know more about the background. But when the mother has finally started investigating on the right track, I was all excited and from there, the speed of the film grows exponentially until the very last scene, which beautifully ties back to the first scene. (A scene that made me laugh, by the way.)
Personally I enjoyed “The Host” more, but to some degree, these two films totally cannot be compared. Whereas “The Host” is designed to please a large audience and be both suspenseful and funny, “Mother” has had its funny moments but is mostly a fascinating character study and mystery film. Well done, now I really have to see “Memories of Murder”.