Azooma

Lee Ji Seung's Azooma (South Korea, 2012) -In this feminine version of the Hollywood thriller LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, an ordinary mother plays the protagonist to enhance our sympathy and rage while raising questions of ethics and societal responsibility. The film covers exactly the same subject as DON'T CRY, MOMMY which is screening in Open Cinema this year: a mother's private revenge for the rape of her daughter and an unresponsive and ineffective governmental apparatus. But this time the victim is only 10 years old. Though she expects the police to dispense justice, all she witnesses is a poor investigation; where she expects understanding, she experiences only prejudice and apathy, even from her own husband. What can she do then? Unlike DON'T CRY, MOMMY whose mother character relies on unwanted violence, in AZOOMA the woman falls back on her professional specialty: nursing. It is what makes her final choice so uncomfortable. And also in contrast to DON’T CRY, MOMMY both the narrative structure and the brilliant performance by Jang Young-nam as the grieving mom lean toward the intellectual rather than the emotional. 2012BUS. RATING: 7.