The importance of being earnest
To be quick, BONG Joon-ho’s latest movie is artistically still above the average of Korean contemporary genre cinema but it doesn’t prevent
Mother to be a bit frustrating. I found very audacious the choice of BONG to treat his “Mother determined to save her child” pitch in a manga-like way close to his previous
The Host. Just like
The Host, the movie benefits from BONG’s ability to handle well its shifts in tone through editing and is shot in a masterful but never flashy way. But, whereas this “manga” choice didn’t affect much
The Host, it diminishes here
Mother’s impact. In a word like in a hundred, the character of the son is only used as a pretext for tons of (funny) jokes and never manages to exist in a deeper way. As a consequence, his relationship with his mother isn’t credible for the viewer. Nevertheless, the movie works a bit better at the end when it takes a more serious tone. But it’s too late.
