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An enthralling, twisty and funny Korean dark comedy with solid performances.
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Out of the razzle-dazzle of 2010′s cinematic whippersnappers, here’s a miniature, unassuming film all the way from South Korea that excellently manipulates and celebrates the legacy of Hollywood genre moviemaking, rivalling Aronofsky’s Black Swan as the year’s best made genre piece. Director Bong (who gave us the giddily entertaining sci-fi political satire The Host) fuses an eclectic mix of neo-noir elements, murder-mystery whodunnit, crime procedural movie, black comedy and melodrama, boldly swathing several genres at once, yet curiously, defiantly remains…
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Mother is an absolutely stunning Korean film that fires on every cylinder: a fantastic and iconic central performance by Hye-ja Kim, beautiful cinematography, a thought-provoking/crowd pleasing script, and a tense atmosphere splattered by blood and dark laughs. From the start we are deeply engrossed in every twist and turn, and the mastery showed by director Joon-ho Bong in many of the scenes is just breathtaking. A triumph!
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Whoa.
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Brilliant and disturbing. Gorgeous cinematography, the son and mother were amazing.
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We started this film a while back and didn't finish it. We did tonight from beginning to end. We were blown away. This film is a modern interpretation of Bergman meets Shakespeare meets Alfred Hitchcock. Freaking brilliant on so many levels!
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As movie lovers, we have all seen the movie formula. In this movie, it well could have been the non-cop person investigating a crime to set an innocent man free formula. But, I could not figure out where it was going. I wasn't able to even figure out what style it was. Crime, horror, thriller, drama...something else?
It turns out it is all of those but more so a drama. It is slow moving but keeps you interested. The character…
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In the past ten years, few countries have produced more extraordinary and under-seen and under-valued films as South Korea. MOTHER is one of the country's best -- a legitimate masterpiece. It is haunting from beginning to end. I can't think of anything to write that wouldn't give too much information. I feel in love with the three lead performances with Kim Hye-ya as "Mother," Weon Bin as her son Do-Jun and his supposed friend Jin-tae (played by Jin Gu). Hye-ya's…
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Bong Joon-ho is fast becoming one of my favorite directors. Every film of his that I have seen has been amazing. And this is my favorite so far. There is something special about him. He has a way of shooting his films that makes it seem as if he is doing it the only way one could imagine it being done. It feels perfect.
Kim Hye-ja delivers something that I would not dare call a performance. It is so breathtaking…
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Director Bong Joon-ho can do no wrong. Four feature films, each one better than the last. He seems to have cracked the code and uncovered Alfred Hitchcock's secret recipe for suspense. And it turns out that the secret ingredient is humor. Though all of these films would likely be found in the "suspense" section of your local video store, there is definitely a healthy dollop of comedy in there. It makes for a much richer and full-flavored experience. Mother and his debut film Barking Dogs Never Bite are both on Netflix Instant, so I suggest you hop to it.