Review: MOTHER / Bong Joon-ho (2009)
March 18th, 2010 by Scott Marks
Mother (2009)
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Written by Park Eun-kyo and Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Kim Hye-ja and Won Bin
Photographed by Hong Kyung-Pyo in 
Running Time: 129 min.
Rating: 
We never do find out the name of Kim Hye-ja’s character in “Mother,” but the unyielding blood bond between this parent and her son is established immediately after the opening title hits the screen. The problem is we are not quite sure whose blood is on whose hands.
Mom sits in her flower shop trimming stems, all the while keeping an eye on her mentally challenged twenty-seven-year-old son who loafs across the street with a friend and his dog. Do-joon (Won Bin) is so attached to his mother that he encourages the pup to say “hi” to her.
The reflection of a passing car briefly illuminates mom’s face and in an instant, Do-joon is hit and on the ground. He’s unharmed, but it takes a moment for all parties concerned to realize that the blood on his shirt isn’t his. Mom cut her finger the second she saw her son was harmed. It’s a metaphor that will reverberate throughout the film.
Mother is a devoted single parent who will go to any length to protect her boy. After a drunken night out Do-joon follows a schoolgirl home and the next morning police find her body hanging off a balcony with a fractured cranium. The boy is convicted of murder and we spend the rest of the picture along with mom trying to figure out whether or not her son is guilty of the crime.
Bong Joon-Ho directed his first picture in 2000 and has since turned out another 4 1/3 films. There is not a clunker in the bunch. He first came to the attention of American audiences with “The Host,” a story about a mildly retarded narcoleptic that has to save his family and all of Korea from a genetically engineered monster. If Hollywood studios took a lesson from this picture, oh how much more entertained and enlightened action film fans would be. For my money Bong Joon-Ho is the single greatest directorial discovery of the past decade.
With “Mother,” Bong introduces another Korean superstar to a global audience. Kim Hye-ja is a staple of Korean television where she plays a stereotypical devoted mother in the long-running series “The Rustic Diary.” The director, who wrote “Mother” with Kim Hye-ja in mind, wanted “to capture Kim’s little-recognized psychological intensity and emotional sensitivity, and to illuminate the unseen power in the destructive side of her personality.”
“Mother,” which played one night at last year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival, has been picked up by Landmark for a theatrical run. It’s a film of raw emotional and cinematic intensity that is likely to stay with you for weeks to come. Forget about Sandy, Meryl and Mo’Nique. The best performance by an actress in 2009 is currently playing at the Hillcrest Cinemas.
Tags: Film Review, Kim Hye-ja, korea, mother bong joon-ho, mother movie, Movie Review, Won BinFiled Under Reviews, Theatrical
Review: THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF / Udayan Prasad (2008)
March 16th, 2010 by Scott Marks
The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)
Directed by Udayan Prasad
Written by Erin Dignam from a story by Pete Hamill
Starring: William Hurt, Kristen Stewart, Eddie Redmayne and Maria Bello
Photographed by Chris Menges in
Running Time: 96 min.
Rating: 
“Twilight” fans rejoice! You can catch Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson at your local multiplex providing that you are willing to pay two separate admissions.
After sitting on the shelf for over two years the producers of “The Yellow Handkerchief” probably decided to release it last weekend in order to piggyback on what little word of mouth the new Robert Pattinson film (”Remember Me”) would generate.
The story is a formulaic road picture saved by cinematographer Chris Menges lighting and a winning trio of emotionally depleted drifters played by a cast that’s up to the challenge. The three hook up at a diner. William Hurt has just been released from a six year stretch in the cooler. He watches as Kristen Stewart eagerly tries to impress a boy who has his eye set on the town skank. We’re not sure exactly why she is eager to leave home, but she is. Eddie Redmayne is the kid with the car and if you find yourself put off by his neurotic ramblings join the club. As an annoying misfit desperately trying to find his place, Redmayne is very effective at what he does.
There has been a DVD screener of “Handkerchief” sitting in my “To watch” stack for over a year but I refused to look at it in hopes of an eventual theatrical release. There aren’t too many contemporary cinematographers whose work I actively seek out, but any chance to watch a Chris Menges film projected on the big screen is an event. His capturing of color, particularly flesh tones, is unrivaled by just about any other working director of photography with the possible exception of Robby Mueller. (As much as I admire the embossed hues of Vittorio Storaro and Robert Yeoman, the oversaturated complexion of their frames fails to accurately register skin tones quite like Menges.)
Shot between “Notes on a Scandal” and “The Reader,” it’s better looking than both films combined. Perhaps it’s because Menges gets to return to familiar territory, the Louisiana bayou where he shot Andrei Konchalovsky’s graceful “Shy People.”
Udayan Prasad wants a happy ending in the worst way and that’s exactly how he directs it. After bringing this group of oddballs together and engaging the audience with their impromptu road trip the film climaxes in a manner that would make Tony Orlando wince. If ever a film needed to avoid a sappy, sentimental finale it’s this one. Watch the first 85 minutes and make an early exit. Whatever conclusion you come up with is bound to be better than the one on display.
Tags: Chris Menges, Eddie Redmayne, Film Review, Kristen Stewart, Movie Review, Robert Pattinson, The Yellow Handkerchief, The Yellow Handkerchief review, twilight, Udayan Prasad, William HurtFiled Under Reviews, Theatrical
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