Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong's powerful drama, Poetry, his fifth feature film, centers on an unassuming 66-year-old woman who will, when tested, turn out to have unimaginable inner strength--even as her mind is failing. For his efforts, Lee would win the best screenplay award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Yang Mija (Yun Jeong-hie), who has started to forget the occasional word, will soon find that she has Alzheimer's disease. She's a sweet, prettily dressed pensioner who looks after her ungrateful grandson, Wook (Lee Da-wit), and works as a maid for Mr. Kang (Kim Hee-ra), a surly grandfather of limited mobility. Acquaintances often compliment her "chic" ensembles.
When Mija encounters an inconsolable mother (Park Myung-shin) who has lost her daughter, Agnes, to suicide, she wonders why a 16-year-old with her whole life ahead of her would make such a drastic decision. To her grave disappointment, she will find that six local boys, including Wook, had been sexually assaulting Agnes, a farmer's daughter, for months. The fathers, in agreement with the vice principal, decide to pay off her mother to keep the story out of the press and to secure their sons' futures to the tune of 30 million Korean won. Mija's share would be five million KRW or 4,500 in American dollars, an amount far beyond her modest means. Throughout the film, the fathers will politely, if firmly hassle her for money she doesn't have.
To forget her troubles, she registers for a poetry class at the local community center, and Lee includes sequences in which classmates, including a policeman who will prove pivotal later, read their poems. As Mija tells her daughter during a phone call, "I do have a poet's blood. I do like flowers and say odd things." It forces her to pay close attention to her surroundings, taking notes and waiting for inspiration to strike, while keeping her connected to a world on which she is starting to lose her hold.
As time passes, Mija does things that don't always make sense, like walking out of a gathering with the fathers to commune with nature, visiting the bridge from which Agnes leapt to her death, chatting with her mother while failing to identify herself, and honoring a request from Mr. Kang that she had initially found offensive. Lee doesn't explain whether she's acting with intention or not, but in a way, she's like a metaphysical detective, gathering clues and using her connections to see that justice is served.
Poetry serves as an indictment of a society that sweeps sexual assault under the rug, the better to coddle the perpetrators at the expense of the victims, and to keep the cycle going in perpetuity. Lee wrote the central part for the radiant Yun Jeong-hie, who had retired from acting 16 years before (like her character, Yun was in the early stages of Alzheimer's). She appears in most every frame, and she's magnificent as an unappreciated woman who will apply the lessons of her poetic practice in a way that will impact her entire community. Mija has her flaws, and some of her actions may seem questionable, but she's undeniably heroic.
What type of library programming could use this title? Can this film be used in a library education program?
Poetry could be used in a library education program on the work of Lee Chang-dong, contemporary Korean cinema, or representations of Alzheimer's disease on film, like Away From Her, Sarah Polley's adaptation of Alice Munro's short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain, or the more recent documentary The Eternal Memory from Chilean director Maite Alberdi.
What kind of film series would this film fit in?
Poetry would fit with a film series on the varied cinematic work of Lee Chang-dong. Since 1997, the novelist-turned-filmmaker has directed six features and one short, in addition to cowriting Ouni Lecomte's A Brand New Life, producing July Jung's A Girl at My Door, and appearing in French filmmaker Alain Mazars's documentary Lee Chang-dong: The Art of Irony.
What is the pricing for this title?
$200 for PPR