Galway Film Society

Mother

Dir: Bong Joon-ho - South Korea 2009 - 128 mins

Director, Bong Joon-ho was chosen in a recent book (Take 100: The Future of Film: 100 New Directors) as one of the most promising and daring film directors in world cinema. Hye-ja (Kim Hye-ja) runs a herbal apothecary, and performs unlicensed acupuncture to make ends meet. She is constantly on the look out for her son Do-joon (Won Bin), who easily gets into trouble. When high school girl Ah-jung is found dead and dangling halfway from a rooftop, incriminating evidence points to Do-joon as the killer. Neither the district police, nor the lawyer whom Hye-ja must pay through the nose for, show any sympathy or patience to Do-joon's case. Frustrated, Hye-ja decides to find the killer herself. Her biggest suspect is Do-joon's hoodlum buddy Jin-tae. However, she soon learns that there is no one she can trust in her close-knit village. Bong Joon-ho concentrates on one character with smothering intensity to examine the primal quality of motherhood. At the same time this is a superb murder mystery, with twists coming thick and fast yet always at the right moments.

The following short film will be screened before the feature:

The Parting

Dir: Ivan McMahon - Ireland 2010 - 6mins

A mother struggles to come to terms with the death of her young son.