Mother (Madeo)

Year : 2009
Runtime : 126 Min.
Genre : Crime, Thriller, Mystery
Director : Bong Joon-ho
Movie Stars :  Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin
Country: South Korea
Language : Korean
Watch Online: StageVu
Quality: Good-Great
Subtitles: English

Another great film for the super hit director Bong Joon-Ho. It explores the intense relationship between a single mother and her son as she attempts to solve a murder and prove her son innocence. The film did not blow my mind or anything but it was any interesting watch and I would recommend this to anyone.

The film opens up to a woman, the mother, dancing and waving her hands in the air in a care free manner. That made me say okay and wonder what I've gotten myself into this time, but the film quickly set in motion the murder. Yoon Do-joon's mother treats him as her baby and prize as she watches over her shy and somewhat mentally disabled son who hangs with Jin-Tae, a local 'bad seed'. Do- Joon is quiet and calm but reacts violently when called 'retard'. Wondering drunkenly in the dead of night he walks across Yoon Je-Moon, a high school girl with a secret. He calls out to her aimlessly till she turns a corner and tosses a rock at him. Do-Joon wonders away to his house. Later he is arrested by the police after Moon's body is discovered on the top of a roof. I was utterly annoyed by the 80s style police methods that were used on Do-Joon. It was quite clear that Do-Joon is not the brightest crayon in the box. Any educated person could have guessed that he was mental disabled so his confession and lack of memory should have been disregardful. I'm not saying that he should have been treated like an angel but the everyday criminal was a bit harsh.

After being charged with the crime Do-Joon is sent to jail. The mother, who remains nameless, is sure that her son is innocent and sets out to find the real murderer and free her son. In various attempts to get her son to remember the events of that faithful night The Mother finds herself in a world that she simply can't handle and forced to the breaking point of their mother-son relationship.

Plot
A mother must free her son and discover the real murderer after her mental disabled son is sent to jail.

Bride's Waterfall (Air Terjun Pengantin)

Year : 2009
Runtime : 80 Min.
Genre : Horror
Director : Rizal Mantovani
Movie Stars : Tamara Bleszynski, Marcel Chandrawinata, Tyas Mirasih, Kieran Sidhu, Navy Rizky Tavania
Production : Maxima Pictures
Country: Indonesia 
Language : Indonesian

First I would like to say that this was my first Indonesian film. Cheers! I watched it with no clue or idea of what the Indonesian people find "scary", so forgive me if you are Indonesian and you were scared to death by this film, I was not. I don't want to bash the movie or judge it like I've seen 1000 horror films. The cast, especially Lilo (that's one hottie), acted like they've had some kind of training. Don't you hate it when you feel like you are watching someones home movie because the acting is shit? The story was satisfactory and the scenery was brilliant, but I have a few bones to pick with the directors. When the cast were in the hut of the killer why didn't anyone think to take a few/many of the weapons? I mean, if someone was trying to kill me I would want something to protect myself with besides my bare hands. I would be grabbing knives, rods, and anything else that could cause bodily harm to anybody. Icang had a working phone on him the whole time, obviously he had a decent signal from the island because on multiple occasions his cell rang will calls from other parts of Indonesia. I know this because no one in the group were seen calling Icang after the first few were killed. Why didn't he think to even try to call someone for help? I don't think anyone would have gotten there in time to save all of them but still... at least you tried.  I'm guessing that Mandy and Amy were thinking that Icang was playing a game when he ran to the group in near tears and yelling that their friends were dead, because they didn't seem too worried. Lilo, on the other hand, bought weapons along the way to the hut. Tiara angered me because she had a look of annoyance on her face while Icang was freaking out, like she was thinking "Ugh.. can you shut up now?" Granted that I would be annoyed if someone was screaming and I though they were joking, but unless Icang was taking acting classes his fear should have seemed real to the cast. Those were just a few plot holes that I would like to point out, but this may be how Indonesian horror is in general. So I won't judge too harshly on the rating because all countries are different in terms of films, especially horror. This film reminded me of something that I would see on the Syfy channel in America. You aren't scared to shit, but it's just enough to keep you watching. I would recommend this film to people who have 80 minutes to kill or for people who are scared easily and can't handle the serious horror films. There is quite a bit of blood, but it's definitely not Saw (film) bloody. 

Plot A group of friends go on holiday to Pengantin islands where they are hunted by a traditional black magic shaman covered with a mask. 

Dogtooth

Dogtooth, or Kynodontas, is a extremely strange movie about a extremely strange family. I kinda liked the movie, through, I found myself angry over the parent's cruelness to their children and their utter lies.

The family lives on a compound on a island in Greece. The children are forced to stay into the compound at all times and will never be able to leave unless they get a dog tooth, the canine tooth found in humans, of course humans do not loss that tooth so the parents plan on keeping their children locked up forever. The children frequently listen to tapes made by their parents in order to educate them with new vocabulary- wrong vocabulary. For example, the mother tells the son that a zombie is a small yellow flower. This part especially annoyed me because if the children were to ever leave they would not be able to communicate with other Greek people.The parent's cruelness goes beyond this as they make the children preform usual task such as holding their breath the longest under water. The reward is stickers and being able to pick the family's nightly entertainment.

The father weekly picks up a woman by the name of Christina at her job in order to preform sexual favors for the son. The father blindfolds Christina each time on the way to the compound. Christina becomes unsatisfied with the sons performance and seeks out the oldest daughter. In order to get things in this family the children trade. Christina trades a headband for the eldest to lick her between her legs. The daughter has no clue of the nature of what shes doing because she had never been exposed to sex before. She does not know that this is not normal trading behavior.

The second time Christina seeks out sexual favors from the daughter she tries to trade hair gel, but the daughter refuses saying that the headband does not glow in the dark as Christina stated. Christina is forced to trade her two tapes: Jaws and Rocky.  The daughter watches these taps in the middle of the night. This is when she begins to wonder about the outside world. The father finds the taps and beats the daughter over the head with them. Angerly, he goes to Christina's house and beats her with the VCR player. Knowing that he can not trust the outside people he makes the son choice a sister for his sexual needs by making him close his eyes and feel their breast and ass to see which he preferred. He choices the eldest daughter.  

The mother puts makeup on the daughter to prepare her for this sexual encounter. The daughter is visual uncomfortable during the whole time. After, she quotes a line from Rocky threatening him if he ever tried that again. This is just weird, not only are they bad parents but now they are making their children preform incest. And you thought your parents were bad!

The eldest daughter is completely unhappy in her world. She wants out now. In the night she smashes her dog tooth out with a dumbbell. Smiling with a face covered in blood she walks out to the car and lockes herself in the boot. The movie fades to black after the father finds his daughter missing and heads to out in the morning. We are not told or shown the daughter's faith.

These are horrible parents. If you think your parents are bad then you need to see this film! During the whole movie the parents act completely normal toward the children and make up lies as they go to keep the children from rebelling. Some of the lies told are as followed. After a cat gets into the yard and the son kills it because he has never seen anything such as that in his life, The mother and father tell the children that a cat is a dangerous creature that will kill you. The father comes in the house with ripped up clothes and states that a cat got the eldest brother whom the children have never seen because he does not exist. The parents told the children that they locked the son out after he misbehavior in order to keep them obedient.  The mother states that she is pregnant with a dog and twins. The dog will be born, but if the children are good the twins will not and no one will have to share a room.  Somehow after this move your parents telling you that babies came from a island or huge flying bird just doesn't have the same feeling of being lied to anymore. Does it?

I would recommend this movie to just about anyone that is comfortable with nude scenes and thoughts of incest.  This movie deals with adult content and is not for anyone under 16, maybe 18 depending on your views. So parents do not show this movie to your kids to prove how good you are compared to the ones of this film. LOL. The movie moves at a slow pace but you will be so intrested by the parents lack of sanity toward their children you won't even notice.