Mother (2009)

starring Hye-ja Kim, Won Bin

directed by Bong Joon Ho

The main character is a single mother whose adult son is still living with her. Yoon Do-joon can't make it in life with out his mother's help. Jin-tae, Do-joon's irresponsible friend, gets him into trouble sometimes but Do-joon also manages to get himself into trouble sometimes.

Do-joon gets arrested for murder. There is circumstantial evidence that links him to the crime. He was in the area. He saw Moon Ah-jeong, the murdered high school age girl, not long before she was killed. There is also some physical evidence that places him at the scene of the crime. His mother hires a lawyer who turns out not to be very helpful.

Do-joon's mother tries investigating the case herself because the police don't have the time or resources to do so. She suspects that Jin-tae is responsible. She sneaks into his home and steals a golf club which has blood on it. She gets it to the police only to discover that it is lipstick. Jin-tae even has videos of his girlfriend fooling about with the golf club and kissing it.

She gets home late that night night after having too much to drink only to find Jin-tae waiting for her. He gives her an idea for where to look for clues. She tracks down one of the friends of the murder victim. Jin-tae pitches in and helps her interrogate a couple boys that knew Ah-jeong. She finds the murdered girl's cell phone. That in turn leads her to a junk collector.

Do-joon is set free in the end. The real killer is located but Do-joon's mother does something drastic before that happens. She is left shaken by what she did.

Thoughts

I have had this movie on the list of films that I want to see for quite some time. It was available on Netflix for a long time but it isn't there anymore. I wound up watching it on Hulu.

This movie kept me engaged and guessing. I didn't foresee some of the twists that is would take. Maybe I shouldn't be too surprised by them considering that this movie was directed by the same person who directed Parasite.

The ending is a bit ambiguous but I can accept it even if I don't love it.