Poetry

Director: Lee Chang-dong, Lee Chang-dong, Lee Chang-dong, Lee Chang-dong, Lee Chang-dong

2010 / 139min

Mija (Yun Jung-hee) has been tasked with raising her troubled teenaged grandson, Jong-wook, while her daughter, Jong-wook’s single mother, works in far-off Busan. When her capacity as a caregiver is threatened by a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Mija begins to study poetry composition at the local cultural center—first inspired by beauty in the natural world, then, when Jong-wook is mired in shameful scandal, inspired by new depths of disappointment and pain. Written specifically for Yun, a leading light of ’60s and ’70s South Korean cinema who gives an achingly vulnerable performance, Lee’s poignant, penetrating drama was awarded Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2010.