Don't Cry Mommy
Kim Yong Han
The story: Recently divorced Yoo Lim (Yoo Seon) lives with her only daughter, highschooler Eun Ah (Nam Bo Ra, below). Her world falls apart when Eun Ah is raped by three schoolmates (U-KISS member Shin Dong Ho plays one of them) and ultimately takes her own life. Faced with a legal system that coddles juvenile offenders, Yoo Lim decides to mete out her own brand of justice.

Rape is a horrific crime. And it is frustrating when the perpetrators get away with little more than a slap on the wrist if they happen to be underage, in the case of South Korea’s courts.
Faced with this devastating injustice, Yoo Lim takes matters into her own hands when she tracks down the three schoolboys who attacked her daughter.
Writer-director Kim Yong Han wants to draw attention to a serious issue and a glaring loophole in the courts. But Don’t Cry Mommy ends up pushing easy buttons in a lazy way.
The rapists are absolute scum with no humanising qualities whatsoever. They even videotape the vicious rape and end up blackmailing Eun Ah with the footage in order to abuse her further. You, too, will be baying for their blood.
What is interesting is that one of the perpetrators is actually a baby-faced boy whom Eun Ah initially had a crush on. He could pass off for a boyband member and, in fact, is played by one, U-KISS’s Shin Dong Ho. Kudos to him for taking on such a risky role.
Too much of the movie is frustrating though. Eun Ah (a sweetly innocent Nam Bo Ra from The Moon Embracing The Sun, 2012), and Yoo Lim (Yoo Seon from The Sons Of Sol Pharmacy, 2009) keep getting placed in situations that leave them vulnerable to attack. The actions of the mother, in particular, will have you sighing loudly in exasperation as she clumsily confronts the boys responsible for the heinous crimes.
The movie is not satisfying as a vigilante flick nor does it engage with the issues in a thoughtful way, when other Korean films have shown that it is possible to do so. There is Lee Chang Dong’s Poetry (2010), which was also triggered by the gangrape of a schoolgirl, but he juxtaposes the ugly crime with lyrical beauty in a film of quiet power.
Then there is Park Chan Wook’s vengeance trilogy (including Oldboy, 2003), which explored the theme in far greater depth. It is smart enough to have you baying for blood – and then satiates that with generous doses of violent payback.
(ST)