Mother

There are a bunch of Korean directors whose work is always unmissable. Kim Ki-Duk springs to mind, but his work has never really been as popular in Korea as it is on the international film circuit. Bong Joon-Ho, in contrast, opens big in Korea and in the rest of the world.

He's best known in the west for his fantastic monster movie, Gwoemul (The Host), an unmissable popular fantasy that reasserts Korea's need for independence from an imperialist America. While this was the film that turned me on to Korean cinema (and Asian cinema in general), I rapidly became entranced by some of his other work.
Madeo (Mother) is a return to many of the themes Bong explores in Memories of Murder. A corrupt, incompetent rural police force operating in a rural Korean backwater. And the obsessively dogged nature of family. The story concerns a young man with learning difficulties who is wrongly accused of murder, and the attempts of his mother, a poor ginseng collector who does a bit of acupuncture on the side, to prove his innocence.

Beautifully photographed, with a compelling plot, Bong paints a picture of a Korea that's very different to the one we see in the rom-coms set in Seoul or Pusan, where the young people portrayed seem barely different to Americans. This film portrays a Korea that remains connected to its tragic past, where ordinary people continue to be exploited by those who are richer and more powerful than they are, and where family ties still dominate relations.

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Madeo is likely to turn out to be the best Korean movie of 2009. It's certainly the best film that I've seen that was made last year.

Unconditionally recommended. Don't miss it.