Review of Poetry / 시, directed by Lee Chang-dong

There are some movies that you never forget the feeling when the lights start to come back on, and you stop, take a look at the faces around you, and realize you saw something really special in the two hours you shared with those around you, whether familiar people or strangers.

My freshman year of college, when I was attending a fashion school in New York City, I decided to take a South Korean cinema course on the contemporary films that have managed to make an impact, and there was a broader focus on societal movements, politics, and representation within the coursework. One of the films we were set to watch was Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry.

I had not heard of the movie before the class ended up forcing me to watch it, but I was riveted by it the entire time. This is a movie I’ve continuously thought about throughout the years, even long after I graduated and got my master’s degree, and I decided again recently to return to it.

I can clearly remember the lights coming up in that dingy college classroom and seeing how the boy who often sat in front of me, who loved anime and was a film major, was crying and sniffling as we prepared to exit the class. That’s how many of us were touched that night.

Onwards with the review then, shall we?

An older woman with Alzheimer’s tries to understand what’s left of life through poetry.

The protagonist of Poetry is Mi-ja, an older woman who has just been referred to a specialist by her doctor. She has begun to forget things, including common words, which is becoming a concern because of her age.

When leaving the hospital, she sees a woman going mad from grief outside, as she has just discovered her sixteen year old daughter has been found in a river and drowned.

She is dead, but this is a key, but seemingly minor event, that’s going to shape the rest of the film. When Mi-ja goes home to her grandson, who treats her disrespectfully and doesn’t seem to have any care in the world for being a decent person towards his grandmother. She ends up asking him if he knows the girl, and he denies it.

Mi-ja works in her free time as a caretaker for an older man who cannot function without help, as he had a stroke rather recently. This is to make more money from her income that comes from the government, as she now has to take care of her grandson along with herself.

One day Mi-ja walks past a poster advertising a poetry class at a community center, and she decides to enroll. She’s begun to forget common words like “apple,” and poetry will become a medium to capture the beauty even when there isn’t a specific word for the object in her hands.

Soon, it comes to light that her grandson, along with his friends, raped the girl who drowned. She was so devastated by it she ended up killing herself, and the mother, who we met earlier in the film outside of the hospital, is a poor farmer.

There is evidence of the crime because the girl, Agnes, kept a journal that detailed who and how it happened, but only the school faculty knows right now. The parents of the boys contact Mi-ja and explain their plan to pay off the mother to keep her silent, as a lawsuit or case against the boys that goes public can destroy everyone involved.

This seems like something that would and could backfire to me as well, as paying her off is wrong, too.

In the meantime, Mi-ja is formally diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s, and she doesn’t tell anyone. When her grandson’s mother calls asking about him, she does not tell his mother about what happened.

She continues to do her job, go outside and find poetry, and attends the class. She tries to talk to her grandson about what has happened, but he does not care about discussing it. He ignores her. Mi-ja’s next major event is she attends a poetry reading, where she is offended by a man making sexual jokes.

Another person who is there tells her he is a good person due to what he did at his jobs—but this shows a dual side to the situation and film as a whole.

I’d say this is the moment that plants the seed for Mi-ja entirely. She ends up talking to the mother, which also shows her declining mental state. Mi-ja ends up engaging in a sexual relationship with the elderly man she watches, which is uncomfortable to watch because he can’t do anything about it.

When she asks for the money for the settlement from him, he gives it to her, but it comes across as an attempt for blackmail.

That night, after paying the mother off, Mi-ja tells her daughter to come home, and a police officer, the same one at the poetry reading, comes for her grandson. No one resists.

The film ends with the poem Mi-ja wrote from the perspective of Agnes about the incident that happened to her, and it’s read by the poetry teacher to the class. Agnes is shown on screen and ends up going to the bridge where she jumped, ending her life, and we’re left wondering what happened to Mi-ja. Did she kill herself?

It’s unknown.

Overall Thoughts

This is a movie that you need to watch multiple times and think about for awhile after watching it each time. There’s so much beauty in a film like this, and what I love about Lee’s work as a director and screenwriter is how he spotlights people that often aren’t seen in mainstream representation.

Our main character in this film is a 66-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s finding the beauty of life through poetry. That’s an incredible way to tell a story, and I think that he does it so well throughout the movie.

There are also a lot of symbols to contemplate, and many different scenes. A big one is the one with the apple, and another is the poem about Agnes. The living are so concerned with hiding the cause of death that they forget about the dead and their dignity.

Lots to think about right there even. If you haven’t sat down and watched it, do it even after reading the plot like this. It’s worth it.

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