Mother

“There are three possible motives for murder,” a young man (and suspect) comments in Bong’s fourth feature. “Money, passion and vengeance. Which could it be in this case?”

The most underrated (or under-seen) movie in Bong’s canon, Mother returns to the scene of the crime, or at least, to the morbid serio-comic conundrums of Memories of Murder, but this is very much its own thing, dominated by an remarkable performance by veteran character actress Kim Hye-Ja as a quack herbalist and acupuncturist who will stop at nothing to clear her beloved son’s name when a young girl is killed nearby.

It’s the sort of scenario that might fuel a thousand TV series, but Bong makes this one deeply singular and unpredictable, more concerned with the fearsome intensity of maternal feeling than the murder mystery. As usual, it’s both richly photographed, blackly comic and bleakly human. Put it this way: most directors would kill to pull off a movie this good.

Sunday’s screening will be introduced by Mila Zua, an associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC

Mila’s research areas include transnational Asian cinemas; film-philosophy; abject and enchanted epistemologies; star studies; digital and new media; and critical theories of gender, sexuality, and race and ethnicity. Her book Vulgar Beauty: Acting Chinese in the Global Sensorium (2022) focuses on the affective racialization of Chinese women film stars. In addition to her scholarly work, Zuo writes, directs, and produces narrative films, visual essays, documentaries, and music videos.

The film is labyrinthine and deceptive, and not in a way we anticipate. It becomes a pleasure for the mind.

Roger Ebert

You never know where Mother is going to go next. All you know is that you’re in the hands of a master with an appreciably bent sense of humor.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Another must-see marvel of horror, comedy, and impeccable filmmaking by the Korean director Bong Joon-ho…

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly