Those who imagine South Korean films are always full of blood and thunder might profitably take a
look at this gently moving, almost Ozu-like drama.
Its central character is Mija, an eccentric old lady who looks after her difficult grandson in poor but respectable circumstances. She wants to write poetry and goes to class hoping to learn what is essentially unlearnable. "Just look at an apple and think," says the earnest teacher.
She does just that, but a greater dilemma faces her, apart perhaps from a diagnosis of Alzheimer's.
Her son is part of a gang that sexually assaulted a girl at school who has since drowned herself in the river. Now the parents of the gang get together to pay off the girl's mother with the connivance of the police. Under the circumstances it is no use looking at an apple, so Mija provides sexual favours for the stroke-ridden old man she works for in return for the necessary money. "Is this blackmail?" he asks. But there is no real answer.
Director Lee Chang-dong has elicited a superb central performance from Yun Jeong-hie, unforgettable as Mija, quietly plucky in the face of insuperable odds. In the way of good cinema, the full experience is entirely unsentimental and poetic.
Poetry
Cert: 12A
