Movies like The Mother: Directed by Niki Caro, ‘The Mother’ is the new action thriller streaming on Netflix. Starring Jennifer Lopez as a U.S. operative, it tells the gripping tale of a mother trying to save her child at any cost. After being confronted with the sudden loss of her baby, she becomes a stoic recluse and maintains no connection with the authorities. That is until she learns about the known whereabouts of her daughter and pursues her.
The script largely follows Lopez’s titular character on a journey against those who wronged her in the past. Despite a fairly ordinary affair in terms of its action sequences, it works due to The Mother’s drive to seek justice and have a life with her daughter. The emotional backbone makes it an engaging drama, and Lopez’s athletic skills come in handy in chasing the bad guys and killing them. Set largely in the chilling snowscapes, this Netflix thriller can be your choice for a Mother’s Day viewing.
In case you liked Jennifer Lopez starrer The Mother and want to watch something similar, here are a few choices you can rely on:
1. The Villainess (2017)
Jung Byung-gil’s ‘The Villainess’ follows Sook-hee, a highly skilled assassin who has been assigned a mission by the South Korean intelligence agency. She is supposed to kill a man, who she soon realizes has a connection to her own past. She had tried to unsuccessfully avenge her father’s death and, meanwhile, lost her partner at the time. In the present, she is dispatched with her daughter and a man tasked with keeping an eye on her. The lines between the professional and personal lines blur to make them fall in love with each other.
Kim Ok-vin’s scintillating performance drives this contemporary martial arts film and makes it a gripping thriller. With the themes of love, motherhood, and vengeance, the South-Korean thriller promises an engrossing drama besides boasting some truly immersive fight scenes. Despite being a hyper-violent revenge saga, The Villainess has a deeply emotional core, which makes it a great choice in the vein of The Mother.
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2. Kill Boksoon (2023)
On the surface, Gil Bok-soon’s life in ‘Kill Boksoon may seem run-of-the-mill. She is a single mother and has trouble connecting with her teenage daughter, Gil Jae-Yeong. However, her secret life as an exceptionally skilled hired killer is susceptible to constant threat. When she breaks a rule of a syndicate she works for, she falls into a battle with those she held dear for her entire life. After that, not only her life is in danger, but also her daughter’s. She fights with all her might to save her daughter.
Directed by Byun Sung-hyun, this South Korean crime action thriller on Netflix features elaborate fight sequences and a hypnotic command by its charismatic lead actress, Jeon Do-yeon. The screenplay neatly weaves the moments of violence with the ones filled with an undeniable warmth in the mother-daughter relationship. Like J.Lo’s The Mother, it works because of the beating heart of the mother at its core.
3. Furie (2019)
Hai Phuong from ‘Furie’ lives with her young daughter, Mai, in a small Vietnamese town and works as a debt collector to earn a living. Her past life as a gangster is unknown to her child. After the sudden abduction of Mai, Hai Phuong goes on a journey to find her. It unleashes the expert assassin in her, which makes her go on a killing spree. She does it not only for her own daughter but for all those who the person at the center of a cruel, inhumane operation wronged.
The pathos in this 2019 film is driven by Hai Phuong’s drive for a life with her daughter. The martial arts sequences are deftly woven to give us a pulsating action thriller. The director Le-Van Kiet finds an exceptional balance between style and emotion to give us an entertaining movie bereft of crudeness. Ngô Thanh Vân, aka Veronica Ego’s central performance, takes this gut-wrenching mother-daughter drama to another level.
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4. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) & Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
The two-volume Uma Thurman starrer, ‘Kill Bill’ is a sheer delight to witness for all its homages. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, it takes inspiration from classic martial arts films, grindhouse cinema, and samurai cinema, among other types of action flicks. Uma’s character’s journey begins with a threat to her life and her child’s in a wedding chapel. Henceforth, she is known as The Bride, who seeks vengeance against those who wronged her. Her journey is motivated by the bloodlust of these killers while being known as ‘the deadliest woman in the world.’
Like Netflix’s The Mother, Uma’s character goes on a killing spree in the wake of the stabbing she suffers while she is pregnant. Her motivation is to annihilate the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, whose members took everything she cherished in her life. Thurman embodies this role in a way that makes her a quintessential assassin character in cinematic history. While the film relishes its blood-spattering violence, it still resonates as a drama about a mother’s revenge tale.
5. Enough (2002)
Starring JLo in the lead role, Michael Apted’s ‘Enough’ followed the story of a woman named Slim Hiller, who used to work as a waitress in a Los Angeles diner. She marries a male customer she meets during her work, who ends up being incredibly toxic and abusive. He threatens her livelihood and well-being throughout their marriage. It develops into a whole chain of incidents where she is made to fight for a life with her young daughter.
The drama is filled with a myriad of cliches related to a woman battling the odds against a toxic man. As a result, the movie was met with largely negative reviews at the time of its release. Nevertheless, it tells the plight of a woman who is out for vengeance and her daughter’s safety and is also cited as an underrated thriller. That makes it a good choice in the lane of Netflix’s The Mother. Besides, it has an incredible action choreography and also features Jennifer Lopez’s arresting central performance.
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6. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Renny Harlin’s ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’ stars Geena Davis as an amnesiac schoolteacher, Samantha Caine. She once found herself ashore and pregnant with a child. That’s when she hired a down-on-luck investigator, Mitch Henessey (played by Samuel L Jackson), to find traces of her past and recover her identity. Over the course of time, she discovered many details about her identity while simultaneously realizing her expert skills as an assassin. The two stumble upon a dark conspiracy that shatters her self-perception.
Besides being a fairly engaging psychological thriller, The Long Kiss Goodnight is a drama about a woman trying to establish a modicum of normalcy in her life. Her entire struggle to find her roots eventually leads her to live away from her highly eventful past. So, like The Mother, it is also an action-packed movie with a moving journey. With Davis’s impressive performance and over-the-top action sequences, the film has received a cult following over time, and it is also cited as one of the top action films by some polls.
