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Special Bong Joon-ho
Hits from the Bong:

Mother (2009)

Hoezo in KINO

“Don’t trust anyone.” Mother might be the most underrated entry into Bong’s filmography and one of our personal favourites. The story of an overbearing mother that sets out to prove her son’s innocence after a horrific crime is committed as authorities eye him as a suspect, unfolds in parallel to the revelations about the past and the toxic relationship the two have developed. This is also Bong’s most serious film in tone, palet and mood, with a fantastic central performance by actress Kim Hye-ja, who’s famous in South Korea for playing wholesome motherly characters, twisting that image thoroughly with this at times hard to watch portrait of matriarchal madness. Korean language with English subtitles.

Credits

Regie
Bong Joon-ho
Cast
Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin, Jin Goo, Yoon Je-moon
Genre
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Speelduur
129 minuten
Land
Zuid-Korea
Taal
Koreaans
Ondertiteling
Engels

Storyline

A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it’s his mother’s mission to prove him innocent.

We’re pretty confident in stating that Bong Joon Ho is a Rotterdam man at heart. Since his debut full-length feature, the Korean maverick director has premiered most of his films at IFFR and even when Oscar immortality was upon him in 2020, Bong somehow found the time to host a masterclass in our fair city. With two films in the making – his much anticipated sci-fi Mickey17 and an animated feature both set for 2025 releases, we are very excited to announce that we’re screening all but one of his films (Okja is not available for theatrical exhibition) this summer.

We are ecstatic that three time Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho took the time between finishing two(!) new projects to chat with us about his films and his love for cinema. We kick off here with Bong’s salute to the KINO audience, but you can catch other segments of the conversation in our cinema preceding the upcoming screenings.