1. How does your view of the main character change throughout the course of this film? What does this movie say about its the themes of motherhood and justice? And what do you think the mother’s small tin of acupuncture needles symbolizes?

In the beginning, I thought the mother was a pretty average one, just caring and protective of her own child. However, towards the end of the movie, I realized that she may have been a little crazy. And by a little, I mean a lot.  I think she was so stuck in her own ways that she is almost blinded by her own way of thinking.  The whole time she is searching for the real killer, she is blinded by her own judgments that the old man is the killer and this makes it impossible for her to find the real one since she basically has her mind made up.  I think the point of her craziness peaks when she kills the old man, it kind of caught me off guard and I think this action was definitely unjustified.

I think the acupuncture needles represent her coming around to realizing the truth about things.  When she first heard the truth she did not want to accept it at all.  I thought this was especially ironic since she tried killing her son herself a few years back.  She used the needles at the end in the bus and I think all of this represented the fact that she was finally coming to terms with herself which was fitting since it was the end of the movie.