The K-List #13: Mother

These have been strange times, in general and more so personally: while baseball is resting and may for a while, with owners and players finding common ground in everything beside a small thing called core economics, money that is, the other side of my moon, KDramas, has also started the year in an unusally slow manner, with no new dramas catching my eye in this Jan-Feb 2022.

With that here comes my K-List to help none other than myself, as in the past couple of weeks I proceeded to rewatch some of my favorites and, good news, they held steady their course, they still are those good, surprising, plainly beautiful productions I enjoy whenever I can fit them in, particularly when my schedule empties up.

That was also the occasion to pick up one or two dramas that fell on my backlog, those I always promised myself to watch and never got to, either because of sheer length, as in 50+ ep morning series, or because they needed to be watched with care due to their themes.

Among the latter I’m glad I can state that another drama merits my introduction in the K-List, and a due review: today I’m going to talk about a 2018 TvN series by the name of Mother.

• Genre: Drama
• Eps: 16
• Runtime: 1hr+
• Leads: Lee Bo Young, Yool Heo
• Storyline: a researcher and part-time teacher in an elementary school takes matters into her own hands, saving one of her students from her family’s abuses and becoming her de-facto mother while running away from everyone.

Strengths

• Growing ties

Mother is a coming-of-age tale with the on-road component: as the teacher, a woman on her 40s with nothing else than her job, and a young girl her student embark on a perilous escape from the former’s empty life and the latter’s violent family, not only they come to meet many different people, but they change themselves too.

Strangely enough, the one growing the most in the process may actually be the teacher: while her previous routine was devoid of any affection, happiness and interest, a mere going by 24 hours with her research absorbing her whole world, meeting a young girl in desperate need of someone to rely on completely turns over the page, resurrecting unbeknowst maternal instincts, a flame that combusts the lonely woman’s dry heart.

The kid on the other hand is the engine of the whole show: happy-go-lucky on the exterior, always smiling and helping others, she has been dealt quite the bad hand when it comes to her family, a single mother who lacks the smallest bit of love and her boyfriend, a true psycho with a history of violence who sees himself as a savior of women, whose kids are nothing more than unwanted baggage.

The young girl is constantly abused at home, has become wary of her surroundings and is somewhat smarter than your average elementary school student, forced to become an adult and provide for herself, food and all, much too soon. She is empathic, kind but submissive, such that she feels like she has to hide the violence to protect her mother from jail, a sadly common fear of being guilty of your parent’s demise.

What makes Mother such an amazing series is the journey and how it shapes up the relationship between the girl and her new “mother”: not only they get closer to a real mom/daughter pair, it goes far beyond that. As they get in danger both are ready to do anything to protect the other, is it lying, escaping perils or even fighting their innermost fears.

Even with 30 years of difference, the tie between the two is much stronger than common family: they are each other’s rock, the only one who they can call “friend” and tell everything to. That is a unique bond, a path they walk together, truly an immovable object as no matter the obstacles they find their way back to each other, and hardly any other relationship in a KDrama is more heartwarming than that.

• Point no fingers

In a drama dealing with child abuse and all kinds of bad behaviors and degenerate people, Mother’s writing could take the easy road, blame it all on the child’s parents and elevate the teacher’s actions to those of a hero.

Fortunately there’s nothing like that: judgement is passed to the spectator, so while the mother’s actions should find everyone in agreement for her to be punished properly, what about the teacher?

On one hand she literally saved a kid from sure death, on the other what she did is nothing else than kidnapping. She’s not the child’s birth mother and even if the situation called for such measures, she could have just brought her to the police and let them deal with her parents.

This prompts the audience to ask themselves what they’d have done in her shoes, whether to trust others or try the run, and that adds an element of subjectivity that’ll lead to either rooting for her or waiting for the consequences of her actions to catch up on her.

It’s a rare feat for a drama not to take sides but Mother does and it makes for a much more personal experience, one where your opinions do actually matter in how the story resonates and the protagonist relates or not. Morals and ethics are a smart way to engage a viewer, and this drama knows it well.

• Talent has no bounds

One of the first things I personally look at in a series is the cast: sure, the plot matters a ton but there are actors who are capable to elevate even the most basic premise to unforeseen heights by means of their acting prowess, even more so if they are well known to be suitable in a certain KDrama genre, a rom-com, sageuk or thriller to name a few.

That’s why, even if the storyline may sound a little too much, knowing that Lee Bo Young is helming the FL role is nothing but guaranteed quality: one of the most famous and capable actresses in the last decade of Korean entertainment, she rose to fame with dramatic roles in I Can Hear Your Voice and God’s Gift: 14 Days, an experienced performer who never disappoints, particularly when it comes to emotional range.

Her rendition of an empty, sad teacher lacking emotional connection to human beings, jailed in the prison of her own research, showing no enthusiasm and almost no need for social interaction is solid but the growth her character experiences after meeting her young, troubled student is a masterclass.

Once a cold, can’t-be-bothered robot with a daily plan to follow, her monotonous life trembles as a newfound sense of responsibility, love and familiar piety finds its way in her heart, and it shows aplenty. From a static, poker faced entity, LBY explodes a wide array of feelings, from rage to desperation, from joy to sadness, modulating her voice and facial expressions such as there’s almost no comparison between who she was in ep.1 and who she is in the end.

That was to be expected from a surefire above average actress as she is, though she can’t possibly be the best in this one. At the mere age of 9 Yool Heo, chosen among more than 400 participants and at her first acting role, is a revelation: a rare display of pure talent, she shows up first with a sad aura and more scars than a child should have. While she’s outwardly happy, Yool Heo’s poise, demeanor and freezing smiles are the stuff of greatness: you’d know something is off even without knowing anything about the story, she’s that good.

Abandoned by her own parents and being saved by her teacher, it should be obvious for her to become attached, sort of a Stockholm syndrome if you consider the save a kidnapping, but she’s just amazing in making it a gradual process and not a day-night change.

Dubious but grateful at first, she opens up to her new “mother” as the latter does to her, she actively helps in the escape and finally comes to consider her teacher as her true mother, a relationship that is not by blood but by choice, one made of affection, common understanding and trust. Her character has toughened up due to her unfortunate shenanigans and Yool Heo’s acting follows suit: she may be an elementary schooler but she’s proactive, smart, sometimes naive and always hard to stop whenever she makes up her mind on something.

Such a range of emotions, a display of growth throughout 16 episodes and a presence that eats the screen alive are generational and, to no one’s surprise, she’s the youngest winner ever of the Baeksang for Best New Actress, one of the most prestigious awards given in the Korean TV gotha. After her breakout performance she starred in globally known productions such as Son: the Guest and Sweet Home: now still only 13 I can’t wait for her to grow up and be a Hallyu star in 5 years or so.

Talent is preternatural, no matter the age you have it or you don’t, and Yool Heo has it in bunches.

Weaknesses

• One trick pony

Mother, fittingly part of TvN’s best schedule to date as it aired just before notorious masterpiece My Mister, shares a common trait with the latter: it’s storytelling at its best, but that’s all there is to it.

A pure drama, it doesn’t indulge in pointless romances and while there are shades of thriller here and there, the rythm is never too high and the flow is steady, albeit on a slow pace and somber tones.

This is not a breather of a series: the story is poignant, heartbreaking and enthralling but also quite the punch packed on the viewer, with less action and more meaning in each scene you can’t do anything else while you’re watching nor mindlessly wander into this one as you’d do with a cheesy rom-com.

There are also disgusting specimens to loathe, what they do is not only condemnable but frankly horrible in every aspect, and that may be a tad too much for someone to see: don’t forget this is a story stemming on violence and abuse, and not a lot is left to the imagination, so beware and prepare for scenes that’ll heat your anger to the boiling point.

If your target drama is one that has to make you forget about tiring work days and calm you down, stay away, otherwise if your aim is to be fully encompassed, a true follower of such a perilous and emotional journey, more than just a spectator, this is exactly what you’re searching for.

Score: 9/10

I tend to be skeptical about broadly exalted dramas, highly voted and praised wherever they come up, and that’s because I tend to stray from the average viewer, both in tastes and way of approaching a series.

That said, I can’t help but jump on the bandwagon for this one: Mother is exactly the amazing drama everyone considers it to be.

A dramatic story about growth, of a young kid but more so of a woman finally getting to know feelings such as affection and motherly love, Mother creates a difficult path for our leads, and still there’s nothing better than watching two strangers become inseparable as they go through thick and thin, a relationship that elevates the concept of family from a pre-existent connection to the result of a choice both make.

Quality production is a plus, acting even better as to the always steady performer that is LBY, the child is the one capturing the attention and delivering a performance for the ages. Yool Heo, remember the name.

It may not be for everyone’s liking, but Mother is a lesson in delivering a powerful, resounding message through a drama without openly discussing its ethics, leaving that to the audience, a burden for someone, a captivating challenge for many, myself included.

And that’s it for me today! I’ll see you in the next KDrama, unless the game of balls and bats decides to wake up from his slumber…let’s hope so!