Mother

If you want to read my review of Mother, read this post. In マザー, Akiko Misumi is an extremely narcissistic and controlling mother who does what she wants with her children without showing any remorse, even if it puts their lives at risk.

Akiko Misumi (Masami Nagasawa) is very cynical, selfish and addicted to gambling. She does what she can to get money and always puts herself in the victim position when she is among her family.

“Mom, lend me some money, please. I’ll never ask for anything again.”

Kaeda Misumi (Kaho Tsuchimura) is the opposite of her sister. He always got good grades, went to college and helps the family financially every month. Naturally, she has a bad relationship with her sister who only thinks about exploiting her parents.

“Don’t listen to her, Mom. All she does is gamble.”

When Shuhei Misumi (Daiken Okudaira) was still just a boy, Akiko met Ryo Kawata (Sadao Abe) at Pachinko, took him home and decided to go with him to Nagoya, the next day, leaving her son alone, without gas, without water and eating raw food.

Mother: japanese movie review

The most consideration Akiko showed Shuhei was leaving him in the care of a friend, a social worker, who helped her get a pension in exchange for sex. But, he preferred to do some basic shopping and took Shuhei back to his mother’s house.

“I’m sorry I can’t let you into my house.”

Six days later, Akiko and Ryo return, indignant that Shuhei has not sent more money for them to enjoy life in Nagoya. The money was gone. So they made up an abuse story to extort the social worker.

“Shuhei will be brave, won’t you? You will tell everyone what he did.”

Akiko, Shuhei and Ryo start to live on leftovers, theft and small scams. All illegality, dishonesty and promiscuity practiced by the couple was done in front of the child, with no Shame, remorse or responsibility.

Akiko used her son to soften people’s hearts and forced Shuhei to ask for money from his relatives and his father. The father provided the monthly pension and wanted to take care of the child. But, Shuhei refused to abandon his controlling mother.

“Why don’t you move in with me?”

Before abandoning Akiko, not wanting to abort the child she was expecting, Ryo beat Ryuhei and her, who to comfort herself, had sex with the heir of the hotel they were staying at.

“How do you know I’m the baby’s father?”

From that moment on, without Ryo’s assaults and family help, Akiko, Ryuhei and the child who was to come began to live in a tent set up on top of the Hotel. At that point, Ryuhei hadn’t gone to school for months and the guardianship council won’t let her do what she wants with her kids just because they’re her own.

Reviewing Mother: having a narcissistic mother

The consequences on Shuhei’s behavior are evident early in childhood. He was a boy of very few words, especially when they were negative words about Akiko’s behavior. The guardianship council (Kaho Indō) tried. But because he didn’t want to abandon his mother, his life was already doomed.

I am unable to conceive the conflict that was created in Shuhei’s head by not wanting to hate his mother, Akiko. But, since he was a child, having the notion that he was being subjected to something very bad.

He was a great kid, turned into a great teenager. He wanted to study and took very good care of his younger half sister. But, going through everything he went through, from a very early age, his life and his future were already completely compromised.

Why you should watch Mother

I won’t leave Mother ending explained or a download link here, but If there is even the slightest possibility that you have a narcissistic mother, you definitely need to watch this japanese movie. I believe it will help you a lot to identify the signs in her behavior.

I know a guy in this situation and the side effects are immeasurable. The whole formation of the person is affected and, consequently, this affects all the relationships he may have.

Mother trailer

I really feel that you will like this one. So I decided to do this Mazaa review. Go ahead, immerse yourself in the story, the environment and the soundtrack.

And come back later to tell me what you think in the comments. This was one of the most alarming Japanese movies I’ve seen about people living with narcissists.