POETRY

Korea, 2010, 139 minutes, Colour.
Yun Junghee.
Directed by Lee Chang- dong.

A film of great beauty, poetry, yet a film anchored in the harsh realities of daily life as well as crime and punishment. Lee Chang- dong, with his screenplay and his direction, has been able to bring them together in a memorable film (as he did in Secret Sunshine and his SIGNIS award winning film, Oasis).

Most audiences will not know his leading actress, Yun Junghee, but, from the assuredness of her performance, we would guess, rightly, that she has been one of Korea’s most signficant and award-winning actresses, though absent from the screen since 1994. Hers is a completely creative and convincing performance.

At first, with her hat and flowery, stylish dresses, we might think she was a wealthy lady of leisure. It turns out she is a maid and looks after an old man who has had a stroke. She also cares for her grandson, who must be one of the most obnoxiously self-absorbed teenagers on screen, treating his grandmother as his maid. However, he has been involved with fellow-students in a sex crime that has led the victim to kill herself.

Meanwhile, the grandmother, unaware of this, has decided to attend a poetry course and this gives her new life, looking closely at nature and events, in order to write a poem. She attends poetry readings and this is a transforming experience for her.

In the meantime, the fathers of the other culprits decide to cover up (with the consent of the school and some teachers) and make a payment to the mother of the girl. The financial demands are too much for the grandmother but she finds a way to get the money, which then makes her ashamed. She is also deputed to visit the mother to hasten the settlement. She goes but converses with the woman happily and leaves without mentioning the settlement.

The film brings the two plot strands together in a poem, first spoken by Mija, then continued by Agnes, the girl. We see her at the bridge over the river and contemplate, as we have been asked to do during the film, the flowing water, of life and of death, linked with Agnes’ baptism (Mija goes into her requiem mass).

In these days of sexual crimes, it is interesting (and alarming) to see parents and institutions covering up, instead of going to the police, protecting the assailants, thinking money settlement is the only solution, without real regard for the grief of the parent let alone any acknowledgement of the pain of the abused girl. This aspect makes the film timely over and above its poetic contemplation.

1. The excellence of the film in content, style, combination?

2. The Korean sensibility: the city, the river, homes, cafés, the poetry classes and readings? Atmosphere of realism?

3. The opening, the river and the water, the children playing, the body floating? The combination of poetry and issues of life and death?

4. The river and water themes, death, play, the farm and fruitfulness, the bridges, for crossing, for suicide? Baptism? The river at the end? The musical score?

5. The introduction to Mija? The actress herself and her bearing? In the group, the hat and the flowery clothes, going to the doctor, the prickles in her arm, her memory loss with words, the interview with the doctor, having to go to the hospital for tests? Her saying she had to do exercise – the shuttlecock games with Wook? The final shuttlecock game with Wook, the policeman taking over? The prognosis of dementia?

6. Her work as a maid, the daughter-in-law in the shop, the old man, his shouting, his stroke? Washing him, cleaning the house? His gift of the extra money, her telling the daughter-in-law? The further visits, her work? The old man and the Viagra? Her revulsion? Her return to him after visiting the mother of the victim, fulfilling his sexual wishes? Her return, asking for money, the interaction, his puzzling, thinking that it was blackmail? Her betraying his trust with the request for the money? Yet her motivation for her grandson and for the victim of the rape?

7. Wook, the young boy, absolutely selfish, self-absorbed, insolent to his grandmother? Treating her as a servant? His absent mother? His equipment, everything technical, his friends phoning, his watching TV, going out, playing in the arcades? The visit of the friends and their courtesy to the grandmother? His demanding food, his grandmother gratifying him? Her making him clean up his mess at the television? The revelation of the truth, Wook as amoral, and no response to the victimisation? The grandmother taking him out of the arcade, the special pizza, cleaning his nails and cutting them, chiding him for his being careless in cleaning himself, the final game, his arrest? Picture of a selfish generation?

8. The father of the boy, coming to give the information to Mija? Her shock? Going to the meeting, leaving, looking at the flowers outside? The demand for her share of the expensive settlement? Trying to borrow from the father? The journalist and his questioning her? Her getting the money from the old man? Giving it over, leaving the meeting?

9. The poetry theme: poetry as a dying art (as the director says, like cinema)? Her enrolling late in the class, her comment to the professor about sharpening pencils? The professor and his lecture, images, meanings, setting them the task, contemplating the apple? Mija and her always taking notes, observing everything anew, flowers, experiences? Going to the poetry readings and enjoying them? The policeman and his tone, her thinking that he was insulting poetry, his dirty comments? The woman explaining his integrity about internal affairs and his demotion? His coming to talk with Mija? Her weeping and his presence? Support? Going to him for the arrest of her grandson? Playing shuttlecock with her as the grandson was driven away?

10. The fathers asking her to go and meet the mother of the family? Her having seen her in the street after the recovery of the body, the demonstration of grief of the mother, the onlookers in the street? The information, the task, her agreeing to go, being dropped by car? The mother being absent, the neighbour informing Mija, her going into the field, contemplating the beauty, tasting the apricot? Talking with the mother, about fruitfulness, hard work, life on the farm? Her leaving without asking her for the settlement? Her later seeing the mother, having lied to the fathers, the woman not giving her away?

11. The men and their meeting with the mother, the settlement, the agreement?

12. The issue of cover-up of sexual crimes? Solving everything with money? The fathers wanting to protect their sons, their reputation and their future? No consideration at all for the victim, the rape, her suicide?

13. Agnes as a Catholic, Mija going to the mass, the prayers in the church, taking the photo of the girl – and later setting it up for Wook to look at?

14. The final class, no-one writing the poem, the professor and his disappointment? His having met Mija at the poetry reading and discussed with her? Her leaving the flowers, the poem? The poem as Agnes’s song? Agnes taking up the reading after Mija? Seeing Agnes at the bridge, the contemplation of the river? The implications of her being a victim, her death?

15. The question about where Mija went after this?

16. Poetic cinema, yet linked to deep issues of life and death, philosophical and spiritual reflections?