Korean drama - with a twist

Mother, directed by Bong Joon-ho (Tokyo!), is a skillful mastery of entertainment that is part mystery, part soap opera and all drama. It is a complex weaving of family dynamics and cheap thrills, a film that takes the best of Korean moviemaking and still has traces of brilliant reality.

Korean television dramas cultivate mass followers of mostly women. It is over-the-top, hilarious and wildly entertaining. Joon-Ho takes this aspect of Korean entertainment and puts it through his own, more grounded filter.

He shows Western audiences a taste of real Korea, one we don't get to see very often. The story is set in a small city, and it follows characters that are lower class. The characters are real, but the story sometimes reaches outrageously twisted heights.

The protagonist of this movie, of course, is the "mother". She is Hye-ja (played by Kim Hye-ja, Goong) and she has enough personality to carry the entire movie, not that she needs to. She is the typical Asian overprotective mother on a whole new level. Her son, Do-joon (Won Bin, My Brother), is a 20-something mama's boy who still lives at home. As the film opens, we deduce that he's not too smart. As the film progresses, we learn that he has some sort of mental problem.

His mother's unconditional love is put to the test when Do-joon runs into some trouble. He is accused of murdering a high school girl. Determined that the police got it all wrong, Hye-ja tries to find the real killer herself while her son is in jail.

This leads to the most entertaining part of the film as it sidetracks into full-on detective mystery mode. Hye-ja encounters a senile grandmother, inadvertently spies on a couple having sex and has a friend beat up some high school boys in her quest for the truth. It's a hilarious ride that ends quickly once the movie gets dark again.

There are some parts to this film that might be culture shock for Western audiences. For example, there is a scene in which Hye-ja runs up to give her son medicine as he's peeing by the side of the road. It's a side of motherhood that gets all too personal. There are also a lot of rusty-looking acupuncture needles in this film that are not common to us. However, the Korean cultural quirks are a nice change from the usual Hollywood gloss we are used to seeing.

This may be a typical Korean drama, one with plot twists, sex and tears. However, Joon-ho adds some unique nuances that make the film a strong piece. The film begins and ends with the mother dancing eerily to herself. The end sequence is a blurry mess of sunlight as the camera follows Hye-ja dancing on a bus, surrounded by other women, yet alone at the same time.

The most powerful aspect of the film is the mother's character. Despite her son's shortcomings, she never lets go of her belief that he is all-important and that she should sacrifice everything for him. It is an interesting look into Korean family dynamics.

Korean drama is famous for being over-the-top and full of twists. However, as an internationally acclaimed director, Joon-ho takes an established genre prone to implausibility and ridiculousness and gives it some subtlety, without withholding any weirdness.

diversions@umdbk.com

RATING: 3.5 stars out of 5