Mija is a fading flower of a woman, elegantly winsome as she meanders through her neighborhood, taking time to enjoy a breeze and listen to birdsong.
Life is troubled for Mija (Jeong-hie Yun). At 66, she has begun forgetting words and she has a trying housemate in her grandson Wook (Da-wit Lee), who does little other than eat her food, leave his garbage lying around, and dismiss her concerns.
Mija's life takes on intensity as she joins a poetry-writing class for adults, and learned that Wook and five friends had raped a classmate who subsequently committed suicide with a leap into a river.
This film raises powerful questions about personal responsibility in an age of waning values and expediency. Fathers of the boys want to erase the problem by collecting money for the aggrieved mother, in hopes of dissuading her from making a complaint to the police. This way the boys' futures, and their school's reputation, won't be destroyed.
Had Mija really needed a poetry class? She is the only one who thinks of the suicide victim as real, and feels the mother's pain. ("It's not difficult to write a poem, but to have the heart to write a poem," her poetry instructor had said.)
Life is troubled for Mija (Jeong-hie Yun). At 66, she has begun forgetting words and she has a trying housemate in her grandson Wook (Da-wit Lee), who does little other than eat her food, leave his garbage lying around, and dismiss her concerns.
Mija's life takes on intensity as she joins a poetry-writing class for adults, and learned that Wook and five friends had raped a classmate who subsequently committed suicide with a leap into a river.
This film raises powerful questions about personal responsibility in an age of waning values and expediency. Fathers of the boys want to erase the problem by collecting money for the aggrieved mother, in hopes of dissuading her from making a complaint to the police. This way the boys' futures, and their school's reputation, won't be destroyed.
Had Mija really needed a poetry class? She is the only one who thinks of the suicide victim as real, and feels the mother's pain. ("It's not difficult to write a poem, but to have the heart to write a poem," her poetry instructor had said.)