Fifteen minutes into this South Korean drama, Mija (Jeong-hie Yu), a well-manicured widow of 66, has been told to get tested for Alzheimer’s, observed the distraught mother of a teen suicide, decided to enroll in a poetry class, bathed the elderly gentleman for whom she keeps house, and cooked for the sullen teen grandson she’s raising. I’d have expected it to be a predictably touching, poignant, maybe dull drama had I not seen Secret Sunshine, writer-director Chang-dong Lee’s previous film. That one throws a startling plot twist into the second half hour that the rest of the film a lot different. Sure enough, there’s more to the story here, a moral dilemma that relates to the girl’s suicide.
Lee takes a lot of time to portray his main character, whose calm exterior masks careful deliberation, not impassivity. I mostly didn’t find the movie slow, but some will. However, Yu, a lovely actress coaxed out of retirement by Lee, held my attention during the quiet passages. (Lee’s camera work does too.) And right up to the end, I wasn’t quite sure how Lee would end things, or relate the different plot elements. (Mija’s early-stage Alzheimer’s is a surprisingly subtle element.) It’s not as unsettling as Secret Sunshine, whose main character lacked Mija’s even temper. It is a touching, poignant drama. But not predictable.
IMDB link
viewed at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 3/24/11
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