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Poetry

Directed by Lee Chang-dong

Synopsis

A sixty-something woman, faced with a crippling medical diagnosis and the discovery of a heinous family crime, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class. Lee Chang-dong's follow-up to his acclaimed Secret Sunshine is a masterful study of the subtle empowerment — and moral compass — of an elderly woman.

Film Info
Cast & Crew
Festivals / Awards
Reviews
Press Material

Film Info

Release Year: 2010
Running Time: 139
Color Type: Color
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean with optional English subtitles

Winner of the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Poetry is an "achingly exquisite portrait" (Philadelphia Inquirer) of a woman's brave fight against Alzheimer's, and against her guilt over a relative's brutal crime.

This highly acclaimed Korean drama (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) showcases a performance of "surpassing delicacy" (Los Angeles Times) by Yun Jung-hee, who was voted as her country's greatest actress in a public poll. She plays Mija, an aging part-time maid and full-time guardian of her apathetic grandson. Concerned by her frequent forgetfulness, she takes a poetry class at the local arts center to sharpen her mind. She begins to appreciate the wonders of the natural world, but a schoolgirl's suicide initiates a chain of tragic events that will change her life forever.

Directed with skill and subtlety by Lee Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine), Poetry is a "nearly perfect movie" (Boston Globe) about the power of art to bear witness to both sublime beauty and the violent truths that lie hidden in the hearts of men.