Poetry (Korean; 2010)
Director: Lee Chang-dong
The bond that binds people goes just beyond the relationship that benefits each other. Even though the link may just be transferring of genetic traits, it goes beyond all that DNA. One has that inborn responsibility to resolve or deal with the mess that one created! At least that is what some people think. The bondage does not just end with the severing of the umbilical cord or the ending of a corporeal union. The joy or curse of continuity lingers on.
This scenic South Korean flick tells the story of, believe it or not, a 66-year-old grandmother, his apathetic grandson, a dead body of a 16-year-old school girl and adult poetry class. In fact, the grandma, Yang Mi-ja, is the lead character. She takes care of her divorced daughter's 16-year-old son. She lives on a government pension and supplement her income by working as a maid cleaning a hemiplegic man.
In the midst of all these, she is diagnosed to have Alzheimer's disease and her grandson and his friends may be somehow be involved in the suicide of his schoolmate. The story goes on to tell how she goes on with life, trying to learn poetry, try to understand the plight of the dead girl and her family and deal with her illness which is still in an early stage. The film ends with Mi-ja's poem as if she is looking at life through the eyes of Agnes, the girl who committed suicide by jumping into a river. An absorbing movie indeed.
Director: Lee Chang-dong
The bond that binds people goes just beyond the relationship that benefits each other. Even though the link may just be transferring of genetic traits, it goes beyond all that DNA. One has that inborn responsibility to resolve or deal with the mess that one created! At least that is what some people think. The bondage does not just end with the severing of the umbilical cord or the ending of a corporeal union. The joy or curse of continuity lingers on.
This scenic South Korean flick tells the story of, believe it or not, a 66-year-old grandmother, his apathetic grandson, a dead body of a 16-year-old school girl and adult poetry class. In fact, the grandma, Yang Mi-ja, is the lead character. She takes care of her divorced daughter's 16-year-old son. She lives on a government pension and supplement her income by working as a maid cleaning a hemiplegic man.
In the midst of all these, she is diagnosed to have Alzheimer's disease and her grandson and his friends may be somehow be involved in the suicide of his schoolmate. The story goes on to tell how she goes on with life, trying to learn poetry, try to understand the plight of the dead girl and her family and deal with her illness which is still in an early stage. The film ends with Mi-ja's poem as if she is looking at life through the eyes of Agnes, the girl who committed suicide by jumping into a river. An absorbing movie indeed.
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