Mother

Parasite may not be Director Bong Joon Ho's best film yet. Here's the proof.

If you are familiar with Director Bong Joon Ho’s style of storytelling, there is a common pattern worth noting. In fact, it’s probably what won him 4 Oscars this year alone. For example, we are accustomed to believe that the rich people are the bloodsuckers within a capitalist system, taking advantage of the labors of the poor people who are the innocent victims of a social rule that they were simply born into. In his latest masterpiece Parasite, this popular view of the social dynamic is inverted. The poor are the parasites, while the rich are the innocents… and I hope you know the rest. Director Bong’s fame may have blossomed internationally only recently, but in fact his genius was no surprise even 10 years ago in South Korea. The proof lies in Mother, a film that very much echoes his style of flipping commonly held beliefs upside down that we so poignantly saw in Parasite. So what would be this commonly held belief in Mother? The answer lies right in the title: the unconditional love of a mother. Warm. Loving. Caring… Madness. The unconditional love of a mother can be no different from madness. Think about it for a moment.

Think about the implications of this extreme interpretation of what we long thought of as perhaps the most harmless, protective nature of the human condition. The idea that this can be portrayed as madness… is simply insane. Nevertheless, Director Bong shows us how a mother’s love can in fact have scary implications and if this doesn’t send chills down your spine, see it for yourself. Why his movies have not garnered as much appreciation in the past compared to right now is in my mind, a disappointing question. There are some people who might even say that Mother still eclipses Parasite as Director Bong’s best work yet, a film made 10 years before the peak of his career! Although I would disagree, this claim to me is not absurd. In fact, the race is quite close. I would say the shock value of Mother is slightly less because of the slower pacing and requires more interpretation from the audience. But depending on what you value when you watch a movie, you may find yourself agreeing with the fact that Director Bong’s best film yet existed since 2009 all along. If you just became a fan of Director Bong, don’t put your anticipations in what he will create next. Look at his past works. You simply won’t get enough of him. In my view, displaying the utmost complexities of the human condition is when movies truly achieve their purpose. The best advice I got for watching Mother properly is to think of the movie as an analysis on the human mind and not as a murder mystery. While Director Bong may not have been recognized for mastering the art earlier in his career, let Mother be the testament that his success with Parasite was and will not be a one-hit wonder.

The full movie. Your Welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIEbLd3_Hyo&t=1342s

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