Bong Joon-ho Movies

A woman devoted to her son struggles to keep him from spending his life in prison in this drama from director Bong Joon-ho. Do-jun (Weon Bin) is a man in his mid-twenties who isn't especially bright and is easily led. Do-jun lives with his elderly mother (Kim Hye-ja), who loves him fiercely even though she has no illusions about his abilities or his bad habits. Do-jun spends much of his spare time with Jin-tae (Jin Gu), a borderline criminal who takes advantage of Do-jun's credulous nature, much to his mother's annoyance. When Do-jun is arrested by police and accused of the murder of a young woman, his mother is certain he couldn't have done it and sets out to prove her son's innocence to police detectives, who seem more interested in closing the case than researching other possible leads. At first, mother feels certain that Jin-tae has framed her son to avoid being punished himself, but as she digs deeper she suspects the truth is more complicated. Madeo (aka Mother) was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A man who has decided dogs are not his best friend takes matters into his own hands in this dark comedy from South Korea. A college professor (Lee Sung-jae), who with his wife is awaiting the birth of their baby, is being led to the end of his tether by the constant barking of a dog somewhere in the apartment complex they call home. In a fit of rage, he snaps and kills the dog in a nearby flat -- only to discover another dog is still barking somewhere in the building. Soon, one dog after another is disappearing, and the angry teacher is having to come up with new and creative ways to hide his grisly pastime. Meanwhile, the manager of the apartment building (Bae Doo-na) keeps getting more and more complaints about pets who've gone missing, and becomes increasingly determined to find the culprit. Puhran Dah Suh Uigeh was the first feature from director and screenwriter Bong Joon-ho. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Room 407 in a Seoul "love hotel" is rented by the night or by the hour. Four sequences take place inside Room 407: a young man awaits his girlfriend so they can celebrate her birthday; a college student plans to complete a video necessary for his filmmaking class, but his female lead is delayed by a TV news crew; and the young woman from the first sequence drunkenly returns to make love with a different man. In the concluding segment, a man phones a former girlfriend and invites her to room 407 -- an encounter that leads to some unpleasant memories. Shown at 1997 film festivals (Vancouver, Sundance). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Directors Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-ho, and Leos Carax each direct a segment of this triptych feature about life in 21st century Tokyo. The saga begins with Gondry's segment, entitled "Interior Design," about a young couple who moves in with an old friend while attempting to establish themselves in Tokyo. Hiroko (Ayako Fujitani) and Akira (Ryo Kase) have just arrived in the city. They're eager to launch their careers, but first they'll have to find a place to stay. Though Hiroko's old friend Akemi (Ayumi Ito) opens her doors to the ambitious young couple, her boyfriend isn't exactly thrilled by the new living arrangement. As Akira takes his first steps toward becoming a filmmaker, the neon jungle beckons to Hiroko. Before long, Hiroko begins to experience a startling metamorphosis that instills her with a newfound sense of peace and purpose.

The second chapter, Leos Carax's "Merde," follows the debased exploits of an unsightly subterranean creature (Denis Lavant) who emerges from the Tokyo sewers to taunt and torment the unsuspecting denizens of the city. Stealing cash, pilfering cigarettes, frightening old ladies, and even going so far as to salaciously lick schoolgirls, the gibberish-spewing troublemaker dubbed Merde sparks a media frenzy that sends all of Tokyo into a panic. The situation spirals as Merde discovers an arsenal of hand grenades in his underground lair, and begins throwing them in the streets at will, creating an environment of total urban terror. Later, Merde is apprehended and pompous French magistrate Maître Voland (Jean-François Balmer) arrives to defend the deviant in a Japanese court. The only person capable of speaking his client's unintelligible language, Voland stands at the center of a media circus that soon engulfs all of Japan. When Merde is convicted by the court and sentenced to death, justice takes a turn for the surreal.

The trilogy winds to a close with Bong Joon-ho's "Shaking Tokyo," in which a reclusive pizza addict who hasn't left his apartment in over a decade falls for a pretty delivery girl at the very same moment an earthquake hits Japan. A so-called hikikomori who never dares venture outside, the lonely shut-in (Teruyuki Kagawa) subsists almost solely on pizza delivery. When a beautiful delivery girl shows up at his door and promptly faints when the ground begins to shake, it's love at first sight. Later, the agoraphobic man discovers that the object of his affections has become a hikikomori herself, and boldly ventures out of his apartment in order to declare his love. The moment he sets eyes on her, the ground starts to rumble once again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide