The mother goes down for the count.
We follow a mother and her daughter who live a normal life in an expensive apartment. One day, the mother has a mental breakdown, and the daughter must take care of her as she tries to survive it. Will the daughter be there for her, or will it become too tough to care for a mother who has hit the wall hard? The daughter is now the adult in the household, and her father doesn’t help much. Let’s hope he ends up in hell!
The Falls is directed by one of the best and most underrated directors making family drama movies, Mong-Hong Chung. He has made movies such as Parking (2008), Soul (2013), and A Sun (2019). I’m a big fan of this director, and he delivers again with The Falls.
The Falls is a movie for grown-ups who understand that life will not be perfect. It’s nice to see the daughter supporting her mother as best as she can, and you hope they will stick together and that everything will work out for them.
The acting is excellent, and the movie has some short, funny scenes. But this is, first and foremost, a heavy family drama about a mother and daughter who have to take care of each other since the husband found himself a new family. However, because of the virus, the economy isn’t booming. The mother has a lot of unresolved issues boiling inside her that surface when she least expects it, especially while quarantining her daughter, who might have the virus we don’t talk about.
The movie is beautiful to look at, and there’s also tension when the mother is mentally unstable. You’re waiting for her to explode. She’s like a loaded gun, and you hope she won’t do anything to harm herself or others. Just look at the old fart in the store—I loved that scene! That’s exactly how you handle old farts when they get in your way!
This director can’t do much wrong. The movie isn’t for everyone, as it’s a slow-burner. It isn’t as good as A Sun (2019), but it tackles an interesting topic, and the actors are great, especially the actress who plays the mother. She should win some awards for her performance.