Mother

It is possible that the Korean movie Mother proved to be so admirable because few other films in the past year have shown the same high levels of scripting, cinematography, acting and audacity. By comparison with what appeared before, Bong Joon-Ho's latest work of arts and craftiness is a work of genius. Together with The Host, it confirms his status as an auteur with commercial flair.

He conceived a simple storyline. A mentally handicapped young man has been taught by his over-protective mother to react fiercely if anyone calls him a retard. He's the local police stations' obvious culprit when a schoolgirl is found bashed to death. Mother, aided by gossipy schoolchildren and paid-for advice from her son's criminal pal, sets out to prove that someone else murdered the girl.

Out of a such a hackneyed concept, Bong created a perversely witty black comedy slyly transformed into a quirky Hitchcockian thriller. His key ingredient is the multi-award-winning lead actress, Kim Hye-ja, a mesmerising screen presence as an impoverished mum who's an unlicensed herbalist. Whenever she's not in focus, the audience gains a better chance to note how brilliantly, yet unostentatiously, every scene has been framed, composed and edited.

The son's simple-minded, easily side-tracked and confused character is presented credibly, yet he's rarely shown as deformed, mentally or facially. His amoral pal is given a fascinating complexity, as a buffoon, incompetent schemer, sexual object and evil force. Other roles are off-beat cameos, adorned with bizarre quirks that enliven the script and action.

This is a film also rich with visual and soundtrack details that subtly heighten scenes' atmosphere and tension. Acupuncture needles, a smashed apple, detectives' swivelling heads, a field for dancing, guillotined herbs, and more cinematic magic await discovery on a future viewing. Which there will be, which makes this Mother such an unusually welcome movie.