I had been hearing about this for a while, and wanted to see it, especially since Bong Joon Ho has shown some serious talent. This is of course a much more introspective film than the Host, but is in fact better made and all around an intense and good thriller. Well made and well done, I expect to see this film being picked up for a US remake before long, but see the original, it is well worth seeing. A really enjoyable and good film. A must see.

A older widow (Kim Hye-ja) lives in a small town working selling herbs and doing unlicensed acupuncture for her clients. She has a son named Do-joon (Won Bin) who has mental problems, and she does everything to take care of him and keep him out of trouble, but is not easy. A rich man in his car hits Do-Joon an takes off, so his only friend Jin-tae (Jin-goo) grabs him and they chase after it to get revenge. Jin-tae smashes the window off the car and steals the man’s gold clubs, but since Yoon Do-joon can’t remember what happened, he gets blamed and his mother is forced to pay off the man for the damage. When a local school girl is murdered, and some golf balls that Do-joon has written his name on are found there, Do-joon is quickly blamed. When they take him into the station he signs the confession, though he doesn’t think he did it, and the case seems locked and shut, but his mother sets out to prove her sons innocence.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

First the mother suspects Jin-tae and sneaks into his house, finding a golf club with blood on it. Jin-tae wakes up with his girlfriend and they have sex, and the mother must wait and sneak out and go to the police station. There it is shown that that it is not blood, but lipstick, and Jin-tae has video to show when his girlfriend got it on the club.

Jin-tae then forces her to pay him money, but then helps her to do some investigating, as he is interested in police investigations and his friend.

The mother tries to get help from good lawyers, but they are really no help at all. and she eventually fires them as they want to get him put in a mental institution instead of going up for murder charges.

The mother keeps searching, and eventually finds that the murdered girl had a cell phone on which she took of all the men that she prostituted herself with to help pay for her and her crazy grandmother she took care of, and she eventually gets the phone from the grandmother. On the phone is a photo of the local trash collector.

It turns out their is another crazy kid who escaped from a mental institution and had the girl’s blood on his shirt (and the mother has found that the girl did have nose bleeds) and he is to charged and Do-joon released.

The mother goes with her acupuncture kit to pay a visit to the trash collector, where he tells her that he saw the whole thing. Do-joon had been following the girl and she went into the building the old man was hiding in. She threw at big rock at Do-joon, and Do-joon picked up the rock and threw it back (the mother had told him to never be bullied) and the rock hit her in the head and killed her. Do-joon then grabbed her and dragged her to the roof, hoping that someone would see her and get her help, and promptly forgot.

The trash collector decides he has to go to the police to make sure Do-joon is released, so the mother kills him and burns the house.

Do-joon and Jin-tae end up looking through the house wreckage, and Do-joon finds his mother’s acupuncture, which he returns to his mother, and she goes on taking care of her son.

She does go and see the kid who is being charged with the murder and asks if he has a mother, and when he says no, she starts weeping, as at least her son has a mother who loves him, and she has saved her son, even if he is a killer.

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A really intense and good film. Korea is really making some great films.