This is a story about a 66 year old woman, a rarity in cinema and almost always a foreign film, in this instance, Korean. Mija is poised, elegant, quiet, even serene. She hints her life was full of many varied experiences she need not repeat. She goes about her present daily life -- taking care of her slug of a grandson, housecleaning and tending to a man disabled by a stroke -- with a conscious appreciation and awareness of her surroundings. It is no surprise that she decides to enroll in a cultural center poetry class. She would like to put into words her appreciation for the beauty around her. Therefore, she begins to take even closer scrutiny of her surroundings and takes notes, hoping to construct the words to how she feels.
Even her pensive observations of trees and apples fill the dark void of a movie theater; we allow her silent wanderings through nature to overtake us. Unfortunately, her equanimity is thrown off kilter by events in her life and that of her (did I say?) slug of a grandson. It would be unfair to say what these two events are, but they are devastating to her. How she deals with them is the crux of the film. While solving one problem and ignoring the other, she continues to strive to fulfill herself by simply writing a poem.
As lovely a film and as mesmerizing its star (recently voted the greatest actress in Korean cinema in a public poll), the film drags. Easily, a half hour could be shaved, and all of it poetry readings. I truly don't believe I reach this conclusion because I am a Luddite who doesn't appreciate poetry, which I admit, but because it's not poetry at all, but anecdotal stories from insignificant characters, and there's just to much of it. I can say the final poem written my our lead character is worth the wait. If I may borrow from the Japanese, this film can be compared to Haiku -- in its simplicity of spirit and depth of human experience.
Poetry
Director/Writer: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Jeong-hie Yun, Lee David, Ahn Nae-sang, Kim Hi-ra,
Time: 139 min.
Opening April 8 at the Lumiere in San Francisco
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