In a small Korean province in 1986, three detectives struggle with the case of multiple young women being found raped and murdered by an unknown culprit.
A monster emerges from Seoul's Han River and focuses its attention on attacking people. One victim's loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches.
A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant.
After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly cruel and brutal means.
Soon after a stranger arrives in a little village, a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman, drawn into the incident, is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
A mother lives quietly with her twenty-eight-year-old son, Do-joon, providing herbs and acupuncture to neighbors. One day, a girl is brutally murdered, and Do-joon is charged with the killing. Now, it's his mother's call whether to prove him innocent or to leave him imprisoned.Written by
Pusan International Film Festival
South Korea's official submission to 82nd Academy Award's Foreign Language in 2010. See more »
Alternate Versions
A black and white version (overseen by Joon-ho Bong) premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2015. The cut (and duration) remain that same, with colour altered. See more »
Film loves evil, the vile, the inept, the perverse and the innocent defamed. All of this is in the brilliant film "Mother". One of the greatest faults of Hollywood is the complete omission of this type of character (I can't reveal who), and this amazingly scripted piece of horrific, monstrous human behavior takes tremendous advantage of the fact that WESTERN film makers lack the guts to do this story. It helps American viewers that both the setting (a small town in Korea) and the actors (complete unknowns to this viewer) all create a clean slate for us to experience this level of depravity and pure and utter darkness of the human spirit. I just saw Chloe, and believe it or not, the films are similar. Both use a strange and mundane setting. Both films dig deep into the hollow lives of these characters, bereft of love and even the most elemental human contact and affection in their lives. And both films point out the sheer perversity of the modern human spirit searching for this love we all dare to desire. Nothing is missing from this absolutely brilliant tour de force of human rendering that will leave you in disgust and awe. After all, what are movies for? If you don't want to feel the fear and trembling of this kind of human tragedy, we should all just sit home. This movie is a masterpiece.
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Film loves evil, the vile, the inept, the perverse and the innocent defamed. All of this is in the brilliant film "Mother". One of the greatest faults of Hollywood is the complete omission of this type of character (I can't reveal who), and this amazingly scripted piece of horrific, monstrous human behavior takes tremendous advantage of the fact that WESTERN film makers lack the guts to do this story. It helps American viewers that both the setting (a small town in Korea) and the actors (complete unknowns to this viewer) all create a clean slate for us to experience this level of depravity and pure and utter darkness of the human spirit. I just saw Chloe, and believe it or not, the films are similar. Both use a strange and mundane setting. Both films dig deep into the hollow lives of these characters, bereft of love and even the most elemental human contact and affection in their lives. And both films point out the sheer perversity of the modern human spirit searching for this love we all dare to desire. Nothing is missing from this absolutely brilliant tour de force of human rendering that will leave you in disgust and awe. After all, what are movies for? If you don't want to feel the fear and trembling of this kind of human tragedy, we should all just sit home. This movie is a masterpiece.