Madeo / Mother (2009) – 3/5

Bong Joon Ho really playing with our minds here

„Madeo“ or „Mother“ is a South Korean Korean-language film from 2009, so this one is already way over a decade old now and it runs for over two hours. Today (or actually yesterday), I had the chance to see it on the occasion of a film series on Asian movies and of course with director Bong Joon Ho winning so big for Parasite not too long ago, this film here received more attention again as well and the theater was packed. I must admit though that I am only familiar with the director and writer here. Even the name of the co-writer is not known to me and same applies to the cast members. I know that lead actress Hye-ja Kim, who turned 80 not too long ago, received a gigantic amount of awards recognition for her portrayal here and many see her turn as the best (female) performance from 2009 altogether. I would not go that far, but she was indeed pretty good. What I find a bit baffling to be honest, is that apparently she has not had the biggest career so far, not the most prolific career I mean and I do not see too many performances in her body of work here on imdb. This, however, also could have to do with her nationality and with many low-profile South Korean projects simply not being listed on imdb. Anyway, it is not that important either, but also came to my mind when I saw the body of work of Won Bin, the actor who plays her son in this film. Also not extremely prolific, but much younger of course.

The poster here makes it already very obvious what the film is about, a mother protecting her son when he is imprisoned for a murder that apparently somebody else committed and the son had to take the responsibility because admittedly he is not the brightest bulb out there gently-speaking. But this is something where Bong Joon Ho really plays with our perception of strong female characters. All the time, we think she is in the right, we admire how headstrong she is and we want her to succeed and find the real killer. Before eventually the director pretty much mocks literally every single one of us who fell for this manipulative premise. When we find out from the garbage guy that it was indeed the son who killed the girl. I mean she insulted him before that and we know why he did it and that he was not totally evil, especially when he talks about how somebody (namely he) would want to girl to be found as quickly as possible and that is why he put her up there for everybody to see. But back to the idea of whodunnit. The opening is already so insightful from this perspective with the accidents at the golf course when the son is framed by somebody who initially seemed to be a buddy, but really does not like the son too much. We think that he is framed there, so he was also framed for the murder. Maybe even by the same man. Maybe by somebody else. Just by anybody who would take advantage of the boy and maybe even speculated that he would believe he did it himself like how he did with the rear mirror. By the way, these karate jumps with the mirror and later on in jail too were rare comedic inclusions, no matter if they were hit or miss, but the jail attack for example also shows us the boy’s violence and what happens when he is called a simpleton.

There are so many other examples that show us something is really off here. The smaller ones would be the mother saying to her son that they only have each other, but in one scene it looks as if he grabs her breasts and she does not seem to object, which felt really strange, especially when we remember the „sleeping with mother“ comment early on. Or of course that the mother is ready to use violence against other characters, even pays a brute to deliver said violence. We realize the mother has lost a bit touch with reality in terms of her profession and how exactly she thinks she can make people healthy, how she thinks she can make them forget about horrible events in the past, even how she thinks she has a 100% safe formula to get somebody pregnant. You could think it is just make-believe, but reality is that she probably believed it all herself. Look at the scene when she visits the murder victim’s funeral and is attacked there by two other women who are really offended by her presence. When you see this scene, you are supposed to feel these two women are evil and the mother is the good one who is treated disrespectfully for no reason. But there are always two perspectives: Even if her son is innocent, you could understand that they would not want her there to avoid scandal because they believe the cops and the cops would be to blame then. And not the ones at the funeral. Or of course, you totally have to mention the attempted murder that happened when the young man was five I think. Regardless of the question if the mother really wanted to commit suicide afterwards or not, it would have been a terrible crime. Now I also wonder a bit why this was not pursued any further in the film then, but when you watch this scene you maybe just think that she must have been in a really unstable state back then, emotionally and financially too most likely, but hands down she tried to kill her child and maybe what happened back then also had to do with the man’s mental state in the now. Just speculation. There is no evidence of that and she also did not deteriorate, but then again she was also a grown-up at that point already that could have stomached the poison better. She just said they vomited it all out.

Okay, what other scenes? Oh yes, the lawyer who does not like to sit. When we see him walk away from the two and later on also had people lie that he is not present we are supposed to believe what a fool he cannot be serious and he is really missing all the obvious clues and has to be wrong. But fact is he did the right thing. He did not waste any time to defend an accused with almost no chance to win the case and that is why he is the best lawyer in town as he is called by the title character on one occasion. The son having to stay in a lunatic asylum for just a few years would indeed have been a great achievement and makes it obvious that the son almost got away with murder then, even if at that point we are still thinking that he has not done it and he should not have to spend a single day in jail. What I did not really understand towards the end was the scene with the son finding his mother’s needles. You could not be sure if he knew what she had done or if he did not possess the mental capability to understand all this. In any case, they found a new suspect and arrested him, another disabled young boy, and he may not have a mother to „take care“ of him like that. There is also a nice parallel between the beginning and end with the mother dancing. That was interesting. BJH really does not go easy on you/us here. Like you could think when she sits there on her own with a sad face reflecting on all she has done and been through that at least she suffers now, but then she uses that needle on herself to maybe remove the bad memories and actually it seems to work and she starts dancing with the others inside the bus. So it is indeed a happy end for the antagonist (no antiheroine) and all the (somewhat) good guys have to suffer, namely the dead girl, the murdered garbage collector and the innocent man now in jail for a crime he did not commit. The violence coming from the initially good character(s) reminded me a bit of Parasite, even if there the man was probably not as evil or as much of a villain as she turns out to be in here. What a twist really. There is a lot more to discover here, also stuff you will maybe not totally understand on first watch, like the meaning of the bleeding nose if there was any significance to it. There does not have to be with everything.

Or also pay attention to the many occasions in which rain or liquid in some form is used throughout the film. Very interesting to me. Music is also somewhat memorable. Not just the most famous birthday song ever being turned into a song sung to the male protagonist when he gets out of jail, but also a really famous piece of classical music that everybody will recognize immediately. I liked it. Oh and as for the son, he gets an even happier ending as there is this cute young woman who really seems to be into him, so surely he was literally rising from the ashes and going from zero to hero and his dream of sleeping with a woman we find out about early on is also about to become true. Oh and also a very cool reference for football (not American) fans about the 2002 World Cup linked to how time flies oh so quickly. Guess what. We have had not just one event like this since 2002, but four. Time could not run any faster really I agree. I think this is a good film with some great moments, clearly carried from beginning to end by the strong lead performance, but also the murder mystery you can keep trying to solve. Don’t forget about the rock she was throwing his direction before the crime happened. Pay attention to the golf ball. Or the massive car accident that happens right before the initial arrest. That I did not entirely understand either. I must say I was not so blown away that I would want to see the film again soon, but why not rewatch it at some point in the future. I think it is definitely one of these films that feel inspired enough to watch them more than once. Already to understand the title character’s state of mind and all that was going through her head. Still, the truly great moments are eventually not frequent enough, at least not with the first watch, for me to give this film more than 3/5 and thus elevate it into the elusive circle of the very best films from 2009. Nonetheless, the thumbs-up and positive recommendation from me were never in doubt here. This deserves to be seen at least once and you don’t have to do it inside a movie theater, but at home on television or online is also a good enough choice. Go for it and enjoy this film’s gloomy atmosphere, especially if you like Bong Joon Ho’s other stuff!