• Opens, much like perhaps his best (along with Burning) work- Peppermint Candy with a suicide on a bridge. Here Chang-dong Lee distorts the water to his trademark green to open and then it slowly turns to a more normal river/water color—great opening
  • Jeong-hie Yun (playing Mija) is going through some things here—she’s facing a diagnosis of Alzheimer, her grandson has committed a heinous crime, she’s out of money (she needs a large sum to pay for her grandson’s crime), she’s wrecked with guilt and the entire time, is trying to escape, find art (poetry) and evolve. Really well done moral meditation and character study
  • Chang-dong Lee goes half-way in with the green color again- the strong opening, the plants, the bath tub of the house she cleans, the bus—but go all in and give me more
  • Great costume on Jeong-hie Yun- called chic in the film and she is, even if it’s not flashy as she repeats outfits. It still works with the context of her being poor
  • Great long-take at the hospital near the opening of the mom reacting to the suicide in the opening- long-take pivotal moments are a Chang-dong Lee trademark
  • Art (poetry) as an escape from harsh reality
  • Sadly there is a lot of poetry reading here—lots of words in general in the film—novelistic
  • The ending comes full circle after we see the green bus and kid with a green hula-hoop again– she starts reading the poem and the girl victim finishes it—we go back to the river and bridge. Bookends
  • Recommend could go to HR with another visit