Pieta
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 2.0
An incredibly cruel and violent loan shark Gang-Do (Lee Jeong-Jin) goes around town, crippling people who don't pay up - eventually, he's visited by a woman who claims to be the long-lost mother who abandoned him (Jo Min-Soo). The mixture of brutal violence with weak Freudian explanations (Gang-Do has Mommy Issues which lead him to act out in anger) is not exactly a solid basis for a movie, no matter how convincing Jeong-Jin and Min-Soo are - she convincingly breaks down his defenses even though it's more or less clear from the beginning she is not only his mother but she has an alternative agenda (how she knew he was orphaned is unclear). Kim's filmography has to be one of the least consistent of any current major film artist: he's as capable of producing a work of beauty (Time, 3-Iron, Spring, Summer, Fall Winter ... and Spring) as he is of some sub-par, borderline amateurish releases (Dream, Breath, Bad Guy).
