Bong Joon-ho is the director who holds the Korean box office admissions record (13 million with The Host). His most recent film, Mother, is a confrontational meditation on what he calls “the most basic and instinctive human relationship” – that between a mother and her son. While the bond is one that informs all human experience, Bong Joon-ho's depiction has raised questions of ethics and morality in his native Korea.
For Bong Joon-ho, sacrifice is a characteristic that best describes the stereotypical portrayal of the 'mother' in Korean film and TV. “The mother makes endless sacrifices for her husband and children,” says the director. “It's almost portrayed as being noble. In Mother, the mother sacrifices herself for her son, but the results of her sacrifice are devastating and it crosses the line between noble sacrifice and obsessive madness. That's the difference in the portrayal of the mother in conventional media and in this film.”
In the film, Hye-ja (played by Kim Hye-ja) is a single mother to 27-year-old Do-joon (Won Bin), a dependent simpleton unable to gauge the reality of the world for himself. He relies on his mother for food and shelter while Hye-ja's herself exists entirely for her son. When a girl is found dead, Do-joon's innocence is doubted and he is accused of her murder. It is then that the bond of the mother is put to the test, as Hye-ja's proud stoicism gives way to obsession for the safe return of her son. Hers is a singular battle fought with every inch of her being, both inside and outside the law and convention.
A veteran with almost half a century of film and TV experience, lead actress Kim Hye-ja is most well known for her iconic portrayal in The Rustic Diary (1980-2002), South Korea's longest running television series. It was the actress herself who “was the origin of the characters and plot”. For the director, “Kim Hye-ja was the iconic representation of the Korean mother and motherly love. If she had refused, the film itself would have been cancelled”.
“As an actress, Kim Hye-ja possessed a lot of energy and craziness that she hadn't shown in her previous roles,” says Bong. “This film tells the story of a mother's destructive actions, hence being the perfect opportunity for her to show this energy.”
“If we view the mother as this complex individual, the mother could be the centre for a surprising argument. In Korea, there was much debate about the mother in this film. Female audiences, especially those who are mothers themselves or older females, expressed their opinions [about] whether the mother can be empathised with, or whether her actions are unacceptable. The strength of this film is its ability to present such issues.”
Bong is the first to admit that the has “always made films that manage to shock audiences,” whether it be a serial killer story where the criminal hasn't been caught (Memories of Murder), or a monster appearing in the middle of the city of Seoul (The Host).
“In the case of Mother I took the classic and traditional theme of the mother and turned it over, taking it to extremes. It came naturally to me,” he says. “I don't worry or doubt about whether foreign audiences will react differently to Korean audiences or whether other cultures will understand the details of Korean culture.”
Mother is streaming on SBS On Demand as part of Korean Film Festival Selects (running 1 - 8 November on SBS On Demand).
