Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

Mother Fish (Film)

by Erin Free | August 03, 2010 09:43 | Edited August 03, 2010 09:44

While simply told, this beautifully crafted and ambitious film is compelling and deeply affecting.

There are many ways to tell a story. Most filmmakers tend to do it in the most circuitous, complicated way possible, using every modern technique at their disposal. Sometimes, however, the simplest method is the best. By boiling a story down to its true essentials, you can more easily rend at the truth of the matter, avoiding unnecessary sideline distractions and instead focusing on what really matters.

 

With his new film, Mother Fish, young Australian director Khoa Do (The Finished People, Footy Legends) takes the simplest and most direct route to the heart of his story. The film uses one simple set to tell a story that is nonetheless epic in scope and admirably ambitious. The results are often stunning and completely unforgettable.

 

The film opens in what looks like a suburban sweatshop. Amidst the whirring sewing machines and din of quiet chatter, a Vietnamese woman looks haunted and distressed. Distracted from her work, she begins to think back to the long and arduous boat journey that brought her to Australia.

 

Instead of opening up and panning over a wide open sea, Mother Fish instead recedes inward, with the flashbacks taking place within the factory itself. With racks of clothes and work benches approximating a creaking boat on the open ocean - and the brilliantly arranged sound design filling in any gaps - the film remains edge-of-your-seat compelling despite its theatrical style.

 

Employing intense, soul-penetrating close-ups, and gritty but painterly cinematography, Khoa Do carves out something truly special. The performances that he gets from his small, unknown cast (Vietnamese-Australian actors Kathy Nguyen, Sheena Pham, Hieu Phan and Vico Thai) are dazzling in their authenticity, and Do doesn't shy away from the horrors that befall his characters. With skill and imagination, he has put a human face on an issue that has lately been reduced to a cheap political headline.