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	<title>Screen Machine &#187; MIFF09 review: MOTHER (dir. Bong Joon-ho)</title>
	<link>http://www.screenmachine.tv</link>
	<description>Long live the new flesh</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:16:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>MIFF09 review: MOTHER (dir. Bong Joon-ho)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
I think with Mother, his fourth feature length work, Bong Joon-ho cements his place as my favourite working director of any nationality. I’ve seen him compared (on the basis of his two previous works; The Host, and Memories of Murder) with Spielberg and Hitchcock, and unlike most such analogies this description manages to be both utterly foolish and somewhat apt. It’s easy to scramble for such names when discussing Bong’s work for two reasons. First, because despite defying most generic narrative descriptions, Bong’s films nevertheless feel like they belong in the thriller tradition in which those two directors made their names. Secondly, because it’s rare to find a director so utterly, even supernaturally, in control of his material, and with such an unerring grasp of timing and audience response. Scene after scene unfolds with strange tonal and formal zigzags, but Bong never seems anything less than confident in his ability to string the audience along. And unlike most other directors who are intent on keeping the audience in their palm (think of, perhaps, Michael Bay or Peter Jackson), Bong’s films feel totally effortless.

While Mother, which follows the frenetic attempts of a woman to exonerate her simple, sweet son of the brutal murder of a teenage girl, may present less immediately engaging, or obvious thematic subtext than the law and order and institutional indictments of The Host and Memories, I feel confident that repeated viewings will illuminate a critical portrait of contemporary Korean family and social dynamics. Regardless, the film’s formal&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>http://www.screenmachine.tv/2009/08/14/miff09-review-mother-dir-bong-joon-ho/</link>
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