“Mother”

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Written by Park Eun-kyo and Bong Joon-ho

Starring: Kim Hye-ja and Won Bin

Running Time: 129 min.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

We never do find out the name of Kim Hye-ja’s character in “Mother,” but the unyielding blood bond between this parent and her son is established immediately after the opening title hits the screen. The problem is we are not quite sure whose blood is on whose hands.

Mom sits in her flower shop trimming stems, all the while keeping an eye on her mentally challenged 27-year-old son who loafs across the street with a friend and his dog. Do-joon (Won Bin) is so attached to his mother that he encourages the pup to say “hi” to her.

The reflection of a passing car briefly illuminates mom’s face and in an instant, Do-joon is hit and on the ground. He’s unharmed, but it takes a moment for all parties concerned to realize that the blood on his shirt isn’t his. Mom cut her finger the second she saw her son was harmed. It’s a metaphor that will reverberate throughout the film.

Mother is a devoted single parent who will go to any length to protect her boy. After a drunken night out Do-joon follows a schoolgirl home and the next morning police find her body hanging off a balcony with a fractured cranium. The boy is convicted of murder and we spend the rest of the picture along with mom trying to figure out whether or not her son is guilty of the crime.

Bong Joon-Ho directed his first picture in 2000 and has since turned out another 4 1/3 films. There is not a clunker in the bunch. He first came to the attention of American audiences with “The Host,” a story about a mildly retarded narcoleptic that has to save his family and all of Korea from a genetically engineered monster. If Hollywood studios took a lesson from this picture, oh how much more entertained and enlightened action film fans would be. For my money Bong Joon-Ho is the single greatest directorial discovery of the past decade.

With “Mother,” Bong introduces another Korean superstar to a global audience. Kim Hye-ja is a staple of Korean television where she plays a stereotypical devoted mother in the long-running series “The Rustic Diary.” The director, who wrote “Mother” with Kim Hye-ja in mind, wanted “to capture Kim’s little-recognized psychological intensity and emotional sensitivity, and to illuminate the unseen power in the destructive side of her personality.”

“Mother,” which played one night at last year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival, has been picked up by Landmark for a theatrical run. It’s a film of raw emotional and cinematic intensity that is likely to stay with you for weeks to come. Forget about Sandy, Meryl and Mo’Nique. The best performance by an actress in 2009 is currently playing at the Hillcrest Cinemas.