Mother

Bong Joon-ho’s last feature so far is often compared to his famous Memories of Murder. Mother also features a detective story set in a small town with a motley team of detectives and a retarded young boy. But by shifting the role of the main character to an ordinary caring mother, who wants to save her son arrested for murder, the result is an entirely different film. Through the titular mother the detective genre gets an original spin and intimate tone. Instead of the usual relentless hunt for a killer the audience gets an emphatic search for proofs of innocence, which however can also be engaging and thrilling.