Mother (2009) review

A headstrong acupuncturist (Kim Hye-ja) finds out her mentally challenged, frankly unpleasant son (Won Bin) has been imprisoned for the murder of a teenage girl (with a history of trading sex for rice!) and is out to prove he is, in fact, innocent. I think I'm starting to warm to Bong's aesthetic - he makes fairly formulaic movies but they have a delightful sense of style and impressive cinematography, though I'm still not sure the combination of whimsical elements and dead seriousness (plus sometimes brutal violence) 'works,' exactly. This one manages to pull an impressive twist ending out of its junk shop of ideas which complements its central conceit that for most mothers, there is no limit to the lengths they will go to protect their children (and those without mothers are left, sadly, to fend for themselves).