The Mother and the Bear Parent Guide

Found unconscious in a Winnipeg alley one frigid winter night, Sumiya (Leere Park) winds up in the hospital in s medically induced coma. The piano teacher from South Korea is suddenly newsworthy, as people debate whether her injuries were caused by a bear or a slip on the ice.

The dire news brings Sumiya’s mother, Sara (Kim Ho-jung) on a panicked visit from Seoul. After racing to her daughter’s bedside, she soon finds herself coping with life in a frozen, foreign city while also trying to understand the daughter who has rarely spoken to her since moving to Canada. 

Like any mother with boundary issues, Sara goes into overdrive. She visits her daughter in the hospital, fills her apartment with homemade kim-chi, and, most importantly, considers how to ensure that Sumiya will find a good husband. With her daughter’s future in mind, Sara sets up a profile for her on a dating app – and starts communicating with a handsome young Korean-Canadian man. But as Sara learns more about Sumiya and the young man she’s texting, she begins to question her initial assumptions…

The Mother and the Bear is a tender film about loneliness, the challenges of parenting, and the gulfs that can exist between generations and across cultures. It’s also a story of love, personal growth, second chances, and kindness. Fortunately, lead actress Kim Ho-jung has the capability to carry the story, imbuing Sara with believable determination, love, fear, insecurity, and hope. 

This movie isn’t merely a love story between parent and child or between new partners. It’s also a love letter to the city of Winnipeg, a prairie city often derided for its extreme climate and large mosquitoes. But director Johnny Ma seems determined to share every bit of the city, from tours of the legislature to shots celebrating the delicate beauty of Winnipeg’s harshest season. It’s almost enough to make the city’s nickname – Winterpeg - feel like a term of endearment.

Less charming is the movie’s negative content. Violence is minimal and profanity is relatively low with eight curse words, including a half dozen sexual expletives, most of which are heard in background conversations. Substance use is a problem, with Sara getting stoned after inadvertently eating marijuana gummies. More problematic is the sexting: there are two PG-13 pics, one of a woman’s cleavage and another of a man’s chest, but the movie also includes a startlingly explicit photo of a man’s sexual anatomy that pushes this unrated film into Restricted territory. As a family movie critic, this is intensely frustrating. I would like to recommend this film to a broader audience, but a moment of graphic nudity makes that impossible. Grrrr.