Logging

Film: Mother by Bong Joon-ho

Is Bong Joon-ho one of the best living filmmakers?  Watch Mother and consider it.  While earlier this year, the American literati went wild for True Detective, over in South Korea five years ago, a filmmaker makes a crime thriller considerably more sophisticated in filmmaking form and narrative style.  Consider the central relationship - a possessive mother has a dim witted son who is accused of committing a murder in a small South Korean town. He is caught and convicted within one scene and the mother insists on the impossibility of her son committing and murder and takes it upon herself to find the real killer.  Both characters are completely unreliable.  The film both uses and upends nearly ever convention of the mystery-thriller and utilizes it utterly unique ways.  Take for instance the convention of learning about a hidden secret about the victim...used in just about every Law and Order episode to lead toward the real killer. Mother waits until near the end of the second act to use this device and instead of it leading to discover the killer, it plunges the character into deeper madness.

As a screenwriter, I was blown away by the storytelling. As a film lover, the direction was stunning - disciplined, evocative, controlled.  No one will talk about some show-offy 5-6 minute tracking shot.  The filmmaker is more subtle and skilled than that.

Memories of Murder and Mother. As much as American audiences love the mystery and crime thrillers, it's shocking the most sophisticated use of the forms are made in South Korea by this one guy.

It look me overly long to notice Bong Joon-ho because I was not a fan of The Host.  Maybe I'll need to revisit, but honestly, his two additions to the mystery genre are enough to cement his legacy as a filmmaker and the guy is still only 40 or so.