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Mother (Madeo) on DVD and Blu-ray in September

10 August 2010

Hye-ja is a single mother and her son is her world. Do-joon is 27 but has the mind of a child, he is naïve and completely dependent on his mother. When a young girl is found dead on the roof of a run down building, evidence is found that incriminates Do-joon and he is accused of the murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force that closes Do-joon's case too quickly inspire his mother to act on her own – to act as Mother in its purest form. Summoning all her maternal instincts and trusting no one, she sets out to find the killer and prove her son's innocence.

After completing only three feature films – Barking Dogs Never Bite / Flandersui gae (2000), Memories of Murder / Salinui chueok (2003) and The Host / Gwoemul (2006), writer and director Bong Joon-ho's considerable talent pushed him to the forefront of the Korean film industry. Memories of Murder was a gripping thriller about a series of unsolved murders in the 1980s. The Host followed a family as they dealt with a monster that rose from the Han River in the middle of Seoul. The films of Bong Joon-ho regularly, and brilliantly, break with convention, thanks to an imagination that is not confined to the accepted parameters of humour, suspense, or horror. Bong Joon-ho remains a director of intimacy even as he puts himself in the public eye, and despite holding the Korean box office admissions record (with 13 million for The Host), he chose to examine the simple figure of the mother for his latest film.

Mother / Madeo has once again met with widespread acclaim, being described by Damon Wise in Empire as "elegant, witty, tightly plotted and absolutely gripping," and by Roger Ebert as "labyrinthine and deceptive, and not in a way we anticipate. It becomes a pleasure for the mind. Long after a conventional thriller would have its destination in plain sight, Mother is still penetrating our assumptions."

Mother will be released on UK DVD and Blu-ray on 20th September 2010 by Optimum Home Entertainment at the RRP of £17.99 for the DVD and £22.99 for the Blu-ray. Both discs will have the following extra features:

  • The Making of Mother;
  • The transformation of Hye-Ja Kim featurette;
  • The cast and crew reflect;
  • Trailer.