My review of Madeo (Mother)

admit I was curious about this one before I had to see it. It met my expectations for sure.

Acting/characters: By far the star performance of the film was Kim Hye-ja as the titular character. She was absolutely spectacular as the Mother. like most titular characters, she had to be as she was the driving force behind the film. From what I understand she is a rather big name Korean actress. The other cast members do an alright job too especially the actor who plays her son. Their relationship is really good and drives the whole film. Yes he is a total momma's boy and I do feel that she is slightly domineering over him which probably doesn't help him trying to break away from her at the same time that he loves her and does pretty much what she says. it is a very character driven film and I think it does a good job at that. 9/10

Plot: It starts out kinda slow which had me glancing at the clock wondering when it was going to end but it soon got to the point where I was totally engaged in the story, wondering where it was going to go next and what really happened. For those of you who have seen the film and are wondering about my take on the ending, I think that the junkman was right. I won't say any more so as to not spoil it for the people who haven't seen it yet but I think his version was the correct one. It is a highly engrossing plot once it gets going. It is also nice that it wasn't too long. It didn't drag out too much. It was incredibly well done and I enjoyed it. 9.5/10

Screenplay: I know I keep complaining about this but I have trouble judging a foreign screenplay especially one where I have no basic knowledge of the language itself. I understand bits of German so it is easier for me to understand German language films. But that aside, I thought that the script for this one was pretty good. The film was more character driven than dialogue driven so it wasn't the most important part of the film but I feel that they did a good job with it nevertheless. 9/10

Likableness: I highly enjoyed the film and if the opportunity arose I would have no problems watching it again. it started off a bit slow for me but once it got going it turned into a really excellent film centered around the spectacular performance of the female lead. This one should have at least gotten a nod for the foreign language Oscar. If any of you haven't seen it and like foreign language films I would highly suggest this one. It was a pretty awesome film and I am glad that I saw it. it wasn't a perfect film, but it was pretty darn good. 9/10

Final Score: 36.5/40 91% (N)
Tomatometer rating: 95%
Tomatometer rating if my review was added: 95%



TRIVIA TIME: 1. Because of phonetic differences between English and Korean, both "Mother" and "Murder" are spelled the same when translated to Korean characters. The movie title, "Madeo", is a play on this similarity, suggesting both "Mother" and "Murder".

2. South Korea's official submission to 82nd Academy Award's Foreign Language in 2010.