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Review - Madeo (Mother)
Korean director Joon-ho Bong's Madeo is an entertaining tale of parental devotion, and the lengths a mother will go to. Here son Yoon do-joon is accused of murder. Convinced of his innocence, Mother, played by Hye-Ja Kim, devotes herself to establishing evidence that will clear her son's name. Unfortunately her efforts are hampered by her son's IQ which is approximately 4 less than a poodle, and whose memory of events has been almost entirely eradicated dur to a bout of heavy drinking. Bong ensures our sympathy is always with Mother, and we empathise with her as a complete novice who is quickly out of her depth as she takes up the investigation. So convinced is she of her son's innocence she thinks nothing of attending the dead girl's funeral, risking the wrath of the bereaved friends and family in the process.
What doesn't help mummy's quest, is that do-joon (played by Bin-Won) has signed a police confession, despite having little memory of the night's events.
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It is difficult to be too sympathetic towards her son, but an entrancing performance by Hye-ja Kim as mum keeps us
involved as suspicion falls on do-Joon's aggressive friend Jin-Tae and
a local ragman, played by Lee Yeung-suck. An actress who was
plucked from obscurity for this role, Hye-Ja Kim is constantly on
screen and single handedly carries this movie with an epic performance
that quite correctly won her Best Actress gongs at both the Asia
Pacific Screen and Asian Film award ceremonies.
The film's director co-wrote the screenplay
with Eun-kyo Park, and
manages to avoid sentimentality, preferring to let the story unravel.
At one pont it does need an injection of pace and gets this just in
time as Mother becomes increasingly desperate to prove her son's
innocence. This leads to an uneasy collaboration with Jin-Tae, and an
excellent plotline using the dead girl's mobile phone images. Mother's
efforts become increasingly desperate, to the point where she takes the
law into her own hands.
If you manage to stay with the film through a slow period after do-joon gets arrested, then your reward will be substantial. This is an accomplished piece of film making that further establishes Korean cinema internationally, especially when you consider the huge box office figures for contemporay Korean cinema such as Oldboy, My Sassy Girl, and Joint Security Area, all of which have been bought by Hollywood for remake.
My Rating : 8/10 Enthralling
Review written by John Franklin : September 2010
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