As with that film, the plot of MOTHER centres on a homicide in a small town and paints a fairly dim view of how the authorities handle their investigation. The police are not depicted here as incompetent, so much as inexperienced and disinterested. They are far more used to dealing with cases of petty theft and vandalism, rather than the murder of a schoolgirl. When investigating the crime scene they pay lip service to the TV show CSI, acknowledging that solving a homicide is closer to fiction than part of their regular job description.

The murder quickly becomes big news in this quiet area, forcing the police to hastily arrest Do-joon (Won Bin), a local lad with a mild mental condition who was seen, drunk and horny, near the scene of the crime on the night in question. He is uncertain of what is happening to him and unable to provide much of an alibi (even the audience saw him follow the victim home), so he is quickly coerced into signing a confession and a speedy conviction seems more than likely. Job done, time for karaoke.

However, they hadn't taken into consideration Do-joon's mother, Hye-ja (Kim Hye-ja). An elderly widow, Hye-ja works as a ginseng vendor, doing a bit of unlicensed acupuncture on the side. Like her son, who she dotes on fanatically, Hye-ja is something of a laughing stock around town. When she tries to hire a lawyer for Do-joon or contest his confession with the police, she is palmed off with a condescending smirk by pretty much everyone. However, as they are soon to discover, Hye-ja is far more resourceful than anyone had given her credit for and resolves to prove her son's innocence by herself.

The film's opening scene introduces us to Hye-ja wandering aimlessly through an area of brush land. As she approaches the camera, it appears she is heading in no clear direction and inappropriately dressed to be wandering the countryside. She stops and begins to dance, moving to an unheard beat, with a faraway, mournful expression on her face. As first impressions go, our aging heroine is immediately painted as a lost soul, an outsider, a woman possibly even wrestling with her own sanity. It transpires that this is a scene from much later in the story, played deliberately out of context. It weighs heavily on its audience and only begins to hint at the dark direction in which Hye-ja's story is heading.

Hye-ja is an utterly compelling heroine. She starts off as a frail old lady so preoccupied with her son that she nearly slices her own fingers off with a guillotine, so submissive to those around her, from her employers to the police, that she literally cowers in their presence. While her age should be an automatic mark of seniority and garner respect in such cultures, it is seen as just another reason to ignore her. As the film progresses, however, we see her evolve into negotiator and detective as Bong explores some surprisingly murky territory.

It is a bold move on Bong's part to anchor his film with such a character. There is no doubting Won Bin's credentials as a star performer. He has already enjoyed success with films such as GUNS & TALKS and TAEGUKGI and MOTHER marks his highly anticipated return to the screen after completing his military service. But in any country an elderly female protagonist is a tough sell. In South Korea, a country well known for its superficial attitudes towards beauty and celebrity, where cosmetic surgery is almost par for the course for aspiring actresses, it's unheard of. Not to mention the fact that veteran actress Kim Hye-ja is hardly a household name. While she may be recognisable to some in Korea for her television work in the past, she's no Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren, in celebrity terms at least. It is no small part of MOTHER's success that Kim's performance is so electrifying and equally obvious from the fact that the film exists at all, that Bong is an international talent whose films are intended for a global audience, rather than solely a domestic one. This seems to have been officially confirmed when MOTHER was announced as South Korea's submission for the 2010 Academy Awards.

Bong tells a deceptively simple tale with incredible gravitas, turning a fairly straightforward quest for justice into a darkly comic and emotionally harrowing journey for its characters and audience alike. While his countryman Park Chan Wook, director of OLDBOY and THIRST, appears to hold the mantle of "Korea's most successful filmmaker overseas", his work is made to look vapid and sensationalist when compared to the measured, yet seemingly effortless, execution seen here. Both directors are drawn towards the shadows where reality and fantasy meet in secret and good and evil share a stolen kiss, but with MOTHER, Bong has shown us that it is the aching simplicity of daily events that so often leads to the greatest of tragedies.

Cross published in bc Magazine (Hong Kong)