On Sunday, September 25, 2011, Cinema Art Bethesda will present the Korean film, Poetry (Shi). The film is 139 minutes long and in Korean with English subtitles.
Synopsis
Mija (veteran actress Yun Jung-hee) is a beautiful woman in her sixties who moves gracefully through life, contemplating a trivial daily routine that is ill-suited to her refined persona. With elegance and a dash of eccentricity, Mija takes care of her ungrateful grandson Wook (Lee David) and makes a living by cleaning house for an elderly man who, though paralyzed by a stroke, still responds to her charm with bouts of drug-induced arousal.
On a whim, Mija enrolls in a poetry class at the local cultural centre and begins a personal quest to find the perfect words to describe her feelings. However, she’s plagued by the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and struggles with new vocabulary and the challenges of the creative process. When her world is turned upside down by the discovery of a monstrous crime, it is Mija’s unique and touching poetry that allows her to defy the weight of shame and distance herself from a painful proximity to violence.
(Adapted from text provided by the Toronto International Film Festival)
Selected Awards & Accolades
Best Screenplay
Cannes International Film Festival
Official Selection
Telluride Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
Official Selection
New York Film Festival
Selected Reviews
The New York Times
– Manohla Dargis
[T]he South Korean filmmaker Lee Changdong uses reserve to tremendous effect. Mr. Lee’s latest, Poetry, which is also in competition, centers on Mija (Yoon Jung-hee), a grandmother raising her only grandchild, a teenage boy, in a small city. At first, this seemingly simple story concentrates on Mija’s daily habits, her visits to her doctor, her relations with her grandson, her poignant vanity. One day she decides to take a poetry writing course, a decision that, as the tale takes a violent turn, becomes our entry into a woman who’s far richer than her fussy habits and humble words suggest. With an understated visual style and perfectly paced narrative, Mr. Lee has created a portrait of a woman who has, by the end, become an extraordinary vision of human empathy.
Time Out (London)
– Geoff Andrew
Lee’s movie counterpoints Mija’s curiosity, courage and generosity with the injustice, cruelty and complexity of the world she lives in, and does so to witty, affecting and very intelligent effect. Wisely, he steers clear of sentimentality – Mija is too firm and feisty a character to allow for that – and in this regard he is admirably served by a wonderful lead performance by Yun Junghee as Mija; sadly, it’s hard to imagine a British film focussing on such an elderly protagonist, let alone carrying it off so persuasively. But Lee gets things gloriously right, and Poetry is undoubtedly one of the best films in this year’s official competition.
Trailer available at official North American site or watch embedded YouTube video below.
