10 Hidden Details In Opening And Closing Movie Scenes You Completely Missed
9. Mother (2009) - The Mother Forgets Her Problems
Mother is a 2009 mystery thriller, directed by Bong Joon-ho (who won last year’s Best Director Oscar), and remains his most underestimated film to date.
The film centres on the relationship between a put-upon widow and mother (Kim Hye-ja) and her intellectually disabled son, Do-joon (Won Bin), who is accused of the murder of a local girl. As Do-joon is put in jail, Mother makes it her mission to clear her son’s name.
Much like a lot of Joon-ho’s films, Mother is a subversive thriller that is jam-packed full of twists. We spend the whole film thinking that the real murderer is going to be revealed, but then Joon-ho pulls out the biggest twist yet - Do-joon is the real murderer.
Realising all the sacrifices she has made for her son (including committing a murder herself), Mother escapes on a bus and then dances with a group of strangers in an attempt to forget all her problems. This is mirrored in the opening sequence, in which we see the surreal and random image of Mother dancing in a field all by herself.
Our lead heroine just accepting the two murders that she contributed to, and attempting to forget about it, is a real haunting and scary image to end the film on, and that is why Mother remains a thrilling and harrowing character study that everyone should definitely check out.