Poetry By Lee Chang-Dong

In a way, Poetry is the story of an elderly woman who desperately wants to write a poem but just can’t. There is ugliness beneath the surface of our society, stories that you don’t want to hear about. Maybe this is what keeps us apart from the real beauty of the world.

Mija, the dandy old lady, is raising her grandson by herself. In poetry class she learns that poetry is inside of her and has to be freed from her heart. However Lee Chang-Dong shows us a different point of view: poetry is all around us. It is in details, moments, silences, and looks. The strength of his film is that it portrays everything around the ugly event that changes Mija’s life, without showing the event itself. Her grandson did something awful and she needs to find a lot of money to get him out of trouble. The film has a slow pace and is a bit too long; time with the characters is chosen over rhythm.

The fragile universe which Chang-Dong creates is full of intimacy and truth. He captures small lives and personal struggles. Feelings, mastered by great performances even in the supporting roles, are always accurate. Indeed the title, Poetry, echoes the never-ending quest of Mija for more sensitivity. Poetry, as every art, is an original way of looking at the world and of expressing it. The hard question that comes afterwards is how to express the indescribable. Chang-Dong answers with elegance and emotion.

By Romain Pichon-Sintes