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Poetry (2010)

Director: Lee Chang-Dong

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6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

At its core, this formidable, delicately meandering ‘women’s picture’ from South Korean director Lee Chang-dong poses two fundamental questions: where does creative inspiration derive from? And is it possible to create beautiful art while living a life beset by tragedy and inner torment? Korean actress Yun Jeong-hie came out of retirement to play Mija, a lonely, impoverished grandmother who enrols in a poetry writing course to assuage the daily traumas of caring for her delinquent grandson and the gradual onset of Alzheimer’s. A stubbornly cheerful soul who has to summon great courage to do something that may offend the various people she comes in contact with, Mija undergoes a profound crisis when she discovers her grandson and his grubby chums have committed an unspeakable act at school and she must stump up cash to hush-up the victim’s mother.

True to the spirit of the title, writer-director Lee organises the sprawling mess of Mija’s personal life with the control and grace of a master, each digression and seemingly arbitrary encounter all building upon his elderly protagonist’s spiralling sense of distress. So relaxed is the pacing, you suspect certain segments would not have worked were it not for Yun’s exhilarating, meticulous central performance. But while Yun’s restrained presence keeps you locked into the drama, the same cannot be said for the male supporting cast, the majority of whom are unambiguously ‘bad’ characters who treat Mija as an aged buffoon. As with Chekhov’s theory of the gun, anyone who starts a film going to poetry classes is eventually going to come up with a poem. The one Mija finally delivers will rip your heart to shreds.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2136: July 28 - Aug 3, 2011

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User reviews of this film

Donny Duke said...

Posted on Apr 07 2012 14:46 He Spits His Gem Here in This Valley –
The Incongruousness of Poetry
(about the film Poetry, a review)
* * * * *
Poetry society views wrong.
How about that?
Hassle with it
Like a bamboo splinter in mud.
Really like that.
Lemmie at ‘im.
What are you doing?
That’s your punishment
Heartbreak.
I’ll engineer society that way.
Call the police.
What I’d do:
Hide your blood pressure.
The trampled apricot and her fallout.
What’s you recognize?
Whadda you do?
I’ll have to admit
Speaking out of turn.
* * * *
No speeches.
Somethin’ I heard.
I wouldn’t give an apple a war song.
My hide becomes seek.
Now who built this habitat?
The splendor of a rose.
Film for you
The pink flowered lady.
Why have we lost the neighborhood?
Life before me
Something
Wasn’t rose in my super heart.
He didn’t know.
* * * *
What’s this?
Of course I’d forgotten
To show you
Not what you’ve done
But the original
Kingfisher:
The hard drive
Back to life.
You try one game
And you speak to our agent.
You get on operation
On
Pain.

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Ken JOnes said...

Posted on Dec 14 2011 17:56 Oneof the most thought provoking films seen this year. superbly directed, acted and photographed.

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alageyık balcıoglu said...

Posted on Apr 05 2011 23:21 a very delicate film ın a very harsh world..

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Jan Mayrick said...

Posted on Feb 24 2011 23:25 A brilliant, evocative, heartbreaking, and poignant film with a bravura performance by Yun Junghee.

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Jan Mayrick said...

Posted on Feb 24 2011 23:25 A brilliant, evocative, heartbreaking, and poignant film with a bravura performance by Yun Junghee.

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Peter said...

Posted on May 25 2010 11:59 Shocking to read that no film by Lee Chang-dong ever got a release in UK. And still some claim that there is a climate for cinema on that island.

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