Many Malaysians will be unable to have a conventional celebration of Mother’s Day this year with Covid-19 lockdowns enforced in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur once more.
However, that’s no reason to not celebrate the day at all, and what better way to do so than to watch some Mother’s Day movies together?
From hair-raising horror to high-octane action, there’s no shortage of films featuring themes of motherhood.
So, grab your bucket of homemade popcorn and crash onto the couch with your dear mother, because it’s time to have some quality time together.
1. Brave (2012)
A beautifully animated film from Pixar, ‘Brave’ centres on the complicated relationship that a free-spirited Scottish princess has with her mother.
Born into a family that places many societal expectations onto her, Merida grows increasingly rebellious and frustrated with her mother.
After a fierce argument, Merida accidentally turns her mother into a bear and she has no choice but to find a way to reverse the spell before it becomes permanent.
It is a beautifully animated film, as befitting most of Disney’s latest works, and it emphasises that parents ought to love their children for who they are.
And it also serves as a good warning against giving parents pastries from mysterious strangers in the woods.
2. Freaky Friday (2003)
This film is actually a remake of a 1976 classic, but given that Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan make a perfect mother-daughter pair, it’s certainly worth giving the remake a watch.
Curtis plays Tess Coleman who is frequently at odds with her teenage daughter, Anna, played by Lohan, over a large variety of issues.
However, a magical fortune cookie ends up causing the two to switch bodies, resulting in various shenanigans as they literally step into each other’s shoes.
Despite the predicament, it is also an opportunity for them to experience each other’s lives for a time, which helps them mend their connection.
It comes as no surprise that the underlying theme of being empathetic to the plight of one’s loved ones is present throughout the film.
3. Aliens (1986)
One might be surprised to find this entry in a list of Mother’s Day films, given how it is an action-horror film with humans being hunted down by deadly aliens.
But when you take Sigourney Weaver’s character of Ellen Ripley, it all starts to make sense why this film is appropriate for the day.
After surviving her alien encounter in the first film, Ripley is forced to lead a marine squadron through an alien-infested moon base.
She forms a bond with the sole human survivor of the colony, a little girl named Newt, whom she takes under her wing.
Up to the climax of the film, Ripley goes through hell and high water to protect Newt and becomes a reminder of why protective mothers are not to be trifled with.
4. Mother (2009)
How far would you go to protect your child, even if they are on the wrong side of the law?
That’s the question that is asked most in this South Korean crime drama which sees an elderly mother go all-out to uncover the truth behind the murder her son is implicated in.
Directed by Bong Joon Ho, the man behind the award-winning movie ‘Parasite’, this film focuses on the mystery surrounding a murder for which an intellectually challenged boy is accused of committing.
His mother, the unnamed protagonist, believes strongly in his innocence and is relentless in her search for answers to free her son.
The film does feature a darker theme of motherhood, with the protagonist’s love for her son being so all-consuming that she is willing to do both right and wrong to protect him.
5. Mama (2013)
Just because you are dead doesn’t mean that you cannot be a mother in the afterlife, or protect your children from perceived harm.
This horror film is something of a fairy tale that begins when a social worker finds two young girls who have been living on their own in the woods for years.
After reintroducing the pair to civilisation, it soon becomes clear that the girls had been kept alive all this time by someone, or rather, something.
And as it happens, their caretaker is not particularly pleased that her daughters have been stolen from her and will stop at nothing to take them back.
While a horror film through and through, the dangerous being has a sympathetic backstory to tell and her actions are all ultimately driven by her lost chance at motherhood.