Madeo (마더; the phonetic enunciation of the English word ‘mother’) is a film exploring themes of blind faith and emasculation. It is the 4th film directed by Bong Joon-Ho, and like most of his stories, Madeo is a political satire on Korean history and culture -this time using the classic overbearing Korean mother and son relationship. The film follows a mother who takes investigation under her own hands when her intellectually disabled son is imprisoned for murder accusations. Bong takes us on a journey as we watch the extremes of what a mother will do for her son, and ultimately questions the audience of their own chauvinist or partisan behaviours.
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Little bonus play-on-words: ‘Madeo’ also sounds like ‘murder’ in Konglish. 😉
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