Joon-ho Bong's new film,released last year, but at the first time enter the theaters in US this March, so we get together and expect to enjoy this horror film.First time seeing such a large title of "CJ entertainment", feel weird but excited.
The story is basically about how a mother detects the truth of a murder case to defend her son who has been accused as the suspect criminal, but her son seems too innocent to hurt any one. However, when the true story finally be revealed, the desperate mother realizes his son is actually the true killer. To cover the truth, she commits another secret murder and by this way saves her son. The end of the story is brilliant and could be understood as metaphor that, to get rid of the feeling of guilty, the mother acupunctures a specific meridional point on her leg with a needle and in effect she forgets all the painful memories and dance happily. The murder case seems always the center of Bong's films. Seven years ago, at the end of "memories of murder", the true criminal becomes an open question. Seven years later, Bong pointed to the Mother and suggests that she is the true killer who should be responsible for the tragedy.
Related this film to a social issue in Korea recently, the metaphor becomes more interesting, or may be more true. Pak Jae Beom, a Korean American pop singer in South Korea was blamed to betray his mother "country" based on some hot words posted on his Myspace when portraying his feeling of Korea. Without listening to any explanation from the kid himself, the whole society goes crazy to treat him as someone commit high treason who even deserves a suicide for redemption.Under the social pressure, the pop star quits his career in Korea and back to US, and someone suddenly realize that is too much for a kid, and they try to speak for the kid. And a large number of his fans began to fight for him and announced that they would forgive him even though he truly spoke those hot words before. It is just the same as they hold a huge needle and be prepared to penetrate it into their own bodies for getting rid of the painful memories and feeling of guilty.
However, it is sad to say that it is real life not a film. Forgetting the collective violence just by a little punch, you can't be more serious.

