‘Mother’, the fourth film from the remarkable South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, is both a crime thriller and an exploration of the mysterious bond between mother and son. Here he talks to James Bell and, overleaf, shows us his original storyboards for five key scenes IN THE NAME OF LOVE

ith the three features he has when it was still under military rule. The film was wondrous, holy and noble. But there must be made since his 2000 debut a huge success, becoming the highest-grossing another, darker side to it. That’s the sort of twisted Barking Dogs Never Bite film in South Korea that year, but Bong followed it approach that I took. (Flandersui gae), 40-year-old up with a complete change of pace – the riotously I’ve heard that Italian mothers are very protec- Bong Joon-ho has emerged enjoyable 2006 monster movie The Host tive of their sons – that’s why there are so many as the most critically (Gwoemul), which surpassed even Memories of mama’s boys in Italy! I think Korean mothers are W fêted and commercially Murder to became the highest-grossing film of all quite similar in this respect. As Korean mothers get successful Korean director of his generation, both time in Korea (at least until it was inevitably older, their sons are expected in some way to take at home and abroad. Part of the secret of that toppled by Avatar). the place of their lovers. So if the son dates a success must lie in the sheer variety and unpre- On the surface, Bong’s latest film Mother (Madeo) woman or marries her, a strange love triangle dictability of his work, as well as in the ease with looks like a return to the police-procedural milieu forms between the two women and the man. More which he takes on popular genres. Each new film of Memories of Murder, but typically it sidesteps than half of all Korean TV dramas deal with this of Bong’s feels like a genuine one-off, riffing on such expectations. The film follows the aftermath theme: parents being against marriage, the trou- genre conventions and audience expectations but of the murder of a sexually promiscuous school- bles between the mother and her daughter-in-law. never relying on them – and, more often than not, girl, but its real focus is the universal power of the JB: Do-joon, the son in ‘Mother’, is a complex character – going way beyond them. protective maternal instinct, examined here via it’s difficult to tell whether he really is innocent. In many ways Bong is the odd man out of the the relationship between a modest herbalist and BJ-h: At first we brush him off as a simple fool, but Korean directors who have found fame and distri- acupuncturist (veteran actress Kim Hye-ja) and her as the film progresses it’s obvious that there’s more bution overseas over the past decade or so. son Do-joon (Won Bin), a 27-year-old who has to him. He’s like a figure enveloped in fog. We Whether accurately or not, international audi- severe learning difficulties and what initially want to open up his head and see his thoughts. ences can bracket Park Chan-wook (Old Boy), seems a childlike innocence. When evidence What does or doesn’t he know? Which of his Kim Ji-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters) and others in an found at the scene of the murder incriminates actions were intended and which were not? I ‘Asian Extreme’ group, while with each new film Do-joon, the police are quick to pin the crime on wanted to keep that ambiguous. In the film’s from Hong Sang-soo (Woman on the Beach), they him. But Hye-ja refuses to believe them, and sets climax there’s a sequence related to the crime. We can expect another Rohmer-esque variation on a out to solve the crime by herself – in the process view his face through the dirty window of the theme. But every successive Bong Joon-ho film has coming up against patronising cops, a lazily abandoned house. It’s hard to make out his expres- been an unforeseeable surprise, moving him exploitative lawyer and her son’s friend Jin-tae sion – it’s almost as though his eyes and nose have beyond any such easy categorisation. (Jin Goo), who may be the real killer. been smudged out. There are a few chilling shots His 2003 film Memories of Murder (Salinui chueok) James Bell: What was it about mothers and the maternal like that. Those sort of visual images describe his was based on a true unsolved serial-killer case that instinct that you wanted to explore in this film? character: smudged, erased, unable to be made out. horrified South Korea in the 1980s. In following Bong Joon-Ho: I always try to look for another side More importantly, this film is shot mainly from the police’s dedicated but inept efforts to catch the to that which we always praise or worship some- the mother’s perspective and shows the son as she perpetrator, it made sharp social comments about thing for – like seeing the dark side of the moon. views him. She is very attached to him and loves the repressive state of the nation in the 1980s, We tend to regard the maternal instinct as being him dearly, but even she cannot understand him. That’s where the sadness or the spookiness of the SOME MOTHER’S SON film lies. It’s related to the overall theme, too. The When Do-joon mother tries to control and rule her son, but is (Won Bin, right) is never really able to know who he is. arrested for murder, JB: Did you incorporate anything of your relationship his devoted mother with your own mother into the film? (Kim Hye-ja, facing page) tries to prove BJ-h: No. I don’t sleep in the same bed as my mother his innocence and she’s never got blood on her hands! My mother saw the film in May last year. Over the last year, we’ve never discussed it. I guess we both feel that it’s better to not talk about it. JB: Kim Hye-ja, the actress who plays the mother, is well known in Korea for playing the role of a mother in films and TV dramas. Did you want to overturn the image people have of her? BJ-h: That’s right. There are so many other sides to her – I wondered why she kept playing similar roles and I thought she probably wanted a change too. I’ve thought that way since childhood when I

24 | Sight & Sound | September 2010 used to watch her on television. I saw she had a dark and slightly crazy side, and I felt attracted to that. She didn’t show that side of herself often, but I remember a drama she was in called Yeo (Female). Unlike regular television dramas, it was quite dark and there was a sequence where she had a fit. I felt moved by that and I remember thinking that only Kim Hye-ja would be able to pull off such an act. I remember seeing her when she appeared on a talk show – she had an odd, sort of out-of-this-world way of speaking. I was impressed by that, and that’s the side of her I focused on. This film had to be made with Kim Hye-ja. JB: In ‘Memories of Murder’ you explored the repressive mood of Korea in the 1980s. With ‘Mother’, did you wish to make any comment on life in present-day Korea? BJ-h: If you had to be strict about it, Mother is set in the present – the characters use the latest cell- phones, and they’re important props in the film. However, the past is all mixed up into it. There are motifs from the 1970s, 80s and 90s – the clothes the characters wear, the atmosphere of the neighbour- hood or the look of Mother’s home. I think that’s the reality in many provincial areas in Korea, so it was my intention to make it ambiguous when the film is set. This is the case with the location too. You can’t really tell if it’s set in the north or south, in Jeolla or Gyeongsang province. I wanted to break away from territorial boundaries. In the case of Memories of Murder, setting it in the 1980s was important. The theme and the film’s concerns about why the serial killer couldn’t be caught and why the detectives were so unskilled are all linked into the greater darkness of the 80s era itself. In the case of Mother, the central focus was on what happened between the mother and son, and what the role of the mother figure is, so I wanted to make the period setting ambiguous. JB: Were there any films or directors that were particular influences on ‘Mother’? BJ-h: I did an interview in the US recently, and one journalist asked me if I had seen Pasolini’s Mamma Roma. It does have some similarities, but I only watched it recently on DVD, so it wasn’t an influence during filming. I did watch Hitchcock’s Psycho during pre-production. Of course, Anthony Perkins’ mother is at home dead and stuffed, but I remember thinking if that mother had been alive, her relationship with her son would’ve been similar to the relationship in Mother.

Thanks to Bryan Jo and Tony Rayns. ‘Mother’ is released on 20 August, and is reviewed on page 68

Sight & Sound | September 2010 | 25 Bong Joon-ho Mother

DO-JOON FOLLOWS THE GIRL BJ-h: This scene was shot on an and the storage shed is open set that was made by our art very important – I call it the team. We were restricted by the heart of darkness. Both the geographical features of the cinematographer and I were very actual neighbourhood and the meticulous about the portrayal of surrounding houses, so once the that space. I always feel a strange set was completed, the actual sense of thrill when portraying length that the characters were darkness on screen. That small able to walk was shorter than alley isn’t really anything special – I had wanted it to be, which it’s just a space between homes created some problems in getting in a poor neighbourhood – but the timing and rhythm right. But I wanted it to leave a strong overall the composition of shots impression in the film. That’s and flow of the sequence was why I portrayed that space as very close to the storyboard. dark, almost pitch black. The girl There’s a part where the girl hides in the space and cannot be hides in the dark at the end of the seen. All we see is a rock fly alley. The space between the house through the darkness.

SCENE BY SCENE, SHOT BY SHOT Bong Joon-ho talks us through the key scenes from ‘Mother’, as he storyboarded them – and subsequently shot them

Bong Joon-ho is not the sort of is merely developed in a written director who leaves it until the format so it may be shared with day of shooting to work out the the crew and actors. specifics of a scene. Instead, as There’s a book called Hitchcock with his earlier films, Mother at Work by Bill Krohn that was was meticulously planned in important for me. Hitchcock’s pre-production. A one-time storyboards and conceptual art laid amateur comic-book artist, Bong out in that book are very classical storyboarded the film in intricate and quite impressive. I read that detail, mapping it out visually book again from time to time. on paper before production. I’m a huge fan of comics The storyboards he drew for and I drew them for the school Mother were recently published paper when I was at university. in South Korea, and we reproduce [Bong’s next film is an adaptation a selection of them here. of the French graphic novel Bong Joon-ho: When I imagine Le Transperceneige]. Comics are still a part of the film at the beginning, a genre that I’m fond of. I especially it’s usually an image or a sound like Alan Moore’s work such as that’s conjured up. Then the From Hell and Watchmen. I don’t process of writing the screenplay know if it influences the way I is really one in which I organise draw storyboards, but I did dream the images that are in my mind. of becoming a comic artist one day. I’m sure this is the case with many So when I draw storyboards, it’s other directors too. The screenplay like I’m living out that dream.

26 | Sight & Sound | September 2010 MOTHER IN THE RAIN BJ-h: I like rain sequences – I used camera movement. When she them also in The Host and Memories stands at the top of that house, of Murder. This is the central you can see all the houses of the location of the film – the place village in the hills below, and as where the girl’s body is discovered you see the lit windows, it seems hanging like laundry. It’s where all as though one of those illuminated the secrets and darkness lie, where homes is where the criminal lives. good and evil collide. It took a lot of effort to find the When Kim Hye-ja rushes to the right location. top of that house in the rain, it’s as I also wanted to show the frail though she’s running up a tower. and elderly mother running alone It’s a crucial scene in the film – in in the rain, using a fast Steadicam. terms of the story, it’s a turning The dynamic atmosphere of that point, where the mother begins sequence was portrayed through to solve the murder on her own. rough pen touches on the I put a lot of work into portraying storyboard. This was a very tough the rain in this scene, and into the scene to shoot for Kim Hye-ja.

THE SPOT INSPECTION BJ-h: In Korea we refer to this [the re-enactment of a crime at the scene by police] as a ‘spot inspection’. It’s an essential part of solving crimes in Korea. In Memories of Murder there’s a spot inspection scene too, where everything turns into a mess. When I view spot inspections on the news, I always feel mixed emotions. It’s very serious, especially in murder cases, but the actual re-enactment process is flimsy and disorganised. They use mannequins or fake weapons – a detective might cut out a piece of paper in the shape of a knife and use it to stab a mannequin. It’s a very important process and an actual repetition of the crime, but at the same time it’s funny and sad, both serious and angry. Families and acquaintances of the victim get worked up and shout and curse the criminal. To maintain order, police officers have to stop people from crossing the line. This is the most realistic scene in the film. The cinematographer and I went to a neighbourhood in Pusan beforehand to compose all the shot frames. That allowed me to draw up the storyboards in detail and to prepare for the scene well. It’s almost exactly the same as the storyboards.

Sight & Sound | September 2010 | 27 Bong Joon-ho Mother

TIGHTROPE WALKER BJ-h: This scene describes everything’s so tranquil and still, moving around. I intended to make couple’s room without being ‘movement amidst calmness’. every single movement – each of audiences feel suffocated by noticed, so by making her hold It’s sort of an Asian concept, which the mother’s steps, or the spilt looking through this microscope. the golf iron horizontally, I means on the surface something water spreading slowly, inch by When Kim Hye-ja finds the golf intended to imply that she’s may seem calm and still, but inch – feels huge. iron – which she considers a major also walking a sort of tightrope. actually it’s moving inside. This It’s like the scene is shot through piece of evidence – she picks it up The image of water is linked is such a bizarre situation: it’s a microscope. Even in a moment and holds it horizontally. Imagine with Jin-tae’s character – he midday in a silent room, a couple which is so calm that it may seem tightrope walkers walking on a always has a sense of dampness [including Do-joon’s friend Jin-tae] like nothing’s happening, take a wire – they hold a long pole in throughout the film. So it was are asleep after making love, and an close look using a microscope, and order to maintain their balance. interesting filming water spreading old lady is walking past them. Since we may find microbes busily Kim has to slip out from the through his fingers.

DANCING MOTHERS BJ-h: This is actually the first scene would shoot against the sun, with getting the right angle of the that came to mind when I had the the light shining from behind the sunlight – the back light had to idea for this film in 2004. I was women. That would mean the enter the bus horizontally. This certain I wanted to show Korean dancing women would look like a meant that we only had 30 to 40 mothers dancing on the bus. In silhouette, and it would be difficult minutes to shoot at sunrise or 2005 I met Kim Hye-ja and told her to determine who was who. sunset, and there could be no high about the story. I remember telling We had to solve many technical mountains or buildings nearby. her about this scene then. difficulties to shoot the scene. It wasn’t easy to find a wide plain A bunch of middle-aged women I was determined that no CGI be to shoot this. The scene was shot dancing on a moving bus – that’s used for this scene, so I ended up on 7 January 2009. That was the day probably something you’d see in providing the crew with a tough when the angle of the sun and the only a very few countries, such mission. The most difficult part was compass bearings were at their best. as Korea or Turkey. But it’s a very realistic portrayal of Korean culture, and I think it contains the theme and emotion of the film. When I first had the idea, I imagined shooting from the driver’s seat – that is, from the front of the bus. But a couple of months before filming, I decided it should be shot from the side – the camera should be placed outside the bus. We

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