Circular Reasoning

Play, Pause, Restart

Last Wednesday in Signs and Wonders, we watched a film called "Poetry". To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

One of the things I found different but EXTREMELY enjoyable was the way that the movie made full circle. Rather then being like most American movies of which travel in a "straight line"of events and end in a new place, this Korean film ended looking over the river, and had the little girl (who committed suicide at the beginning by jumping off of the bridge) looking back from atop the bridge.

Although it was not the happiest movie in the world, I do not think it could of ended more perfectly. It ended where it began, and for me, caused my mind to rethink the story. This is something that I miss in American film. I love the aspect "past event" b-roll with "current event" dialogue, and I felt it added a lot to the film. I do not want to say too much, because anyone reading this should see the movie. It was DEFINITELY worth the two hours of subtitles (and the technical difficulties) we experienced.

Poetry

Throughout the entire movie Poetry Mija is searching for what to write her poem about and a beautiful way to say it. As she is doing this she is running into many obstacles like facing the fact that her grandson was raping a girl who committed suicide and just being diagnosed with Alzheimer. After starting her poetry class she decides to take notes over everything she sees that translates into something poetic. After hearing the poem at the end of the movie that threw all of her ideas and thoughts together I wonder if she was searching for a poem, or answers to what was going on in her life. Whenever she was faced with those issues she seemed to have a breakdown and lose it. Like when she went into her grandsons room and started yelling at him or the few times she would just start crying out of nowhere. It wasn't until her poem was done that she found an inner peace and came to a conclusion that she wanted to end her life (At least thats how I like to think this movie ended). I believe she was confused about so many things in her life, she subconsciously answered them with her scattered thoughts put together, and decided how to end her struggles.

Poetry is red...

This is my second time watching this movie. When I watched it for the first time I was fascinated with general themes of this art: the whole concept of poetry, truth, empathy... etc...

Having watched the second time, my thoughts have changed.

If someone asks me, what this movie is about. My answer is "This movie is about Pain"

First of all, I have to admit that Korean movie or audience in general appreciate lyricism. I do think that this movie portrays well the sentimental nature of Koreans.

Mija, the protagonist in this movie, says, "Red symbolizes pain" Throughout the movie, color red shows up very often. Especially, when it shows a girl, who committed suicide, after being repeated raped by her six classmates. However, this movie is not about six boys, who should be punished, but about two women in pain: Mija and the girl.

As you can see in the poster, there are red flowers besides the old lady. Also, in the picture of the girl who had committed suicide, the girl poses beside the red flowers.

I am not trying to tell you just the use of color red in the movie, but the role that pain takes place in the realm of art and especially poetry.

Without pain, I do not think that Mija was able to write a poem. She was searching for the poetic inspiration throughout the movie, and people around her always told her that the inspiration can usually be found somewhere close or in the moment of things. I guess the inspiration for her was a lot more closer than what people told her. She found it in her. The pain that came from the tragic story of a girl and her beloved grandson, and her inner struggle of morality: whether to take care of her grandson's future or to value the soul of a dead girl.

I think the most beautiful moment of the movie is when the lady is staring at a red apple.

Many of classmates used this photo for their blogs, but I would like to post it again to get across my point.

What does this mean? Why did the director wanted her to observe the red apple? Why not green? Why not banana? She even takes the bite out of it!

Red...apple

"Red symbolizes pain"

Yes, poetry is the observation of pain. Art itself is the observation of pain. That is not the ultimate goal, but without comprehending the pain, the beauty remains hidden.

The poetry teacher in the movie tells his students:

"How many times have you seen an apple? A thousand? Ten thousand? A million? Wrong! You’ve never seen an apple before. Not even once. Up till now, you haven’t seen an apple for real. To really know what an apple is.. to be interested in it, to understand it, to converse with it is really seeing it, Gazing at it for a while and observing its shadow… feeling its every curve, turning it around, taking a bite out of it, imagining the sunlight absorbed in it… That is really seeing it."

Let me reword that. Do we know pain? Have we seen pain? No, not until we observe it and taste it.

In short, art is... the way we digest pain, hardship, and suffering.

Speaking Through Art

Poetry was a pretty awesome movie. The more time I put between me and seeing the movie, the more I appreciate it. There was a lot happening in this movie; it's almost like it's an extremely subtle and extremely less violent Inception--you had to think a lot to keep up with the multiple elements introduced and put the pieces together.

My favorite element to the movie was the introduction of poetry to Mija, the main character. Mija was a very empty character. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, so her spacey-ness should be excusable, but I don't think that is the whole reason for why she was constantly absent from reality throughout a lot of the movie.

What struck me right away was that Mija had figuratively had no voice, and neither did Agnes, the girl who killed herself. Both are silent--not by their own means, and while Agnes found a way to finally scream, Mija didn't know how to, she'd seemingly accepted being hushed. As the movie progresses, viewers are able to see Mija start to unearth this type of strength that allows her to start putting her foot down and trying to speak.

But in the end, her attempts at words weren't enough.

Wook, her grandson, disrespects her still even after she tells him she knows what he did and demands to know why. Her most powerful word towards Wook: putting Agnes' picture on the table at breakfast one morning.

When Mija turns down her boss at his -ahem- demand for physical attention, she later comes back to give him what he wants because though she's said no, her word won't ring.

Mija can't assert herself in the situation with the father's of the boys. I think she couldn't speak because she related so much to Agnes, she saw no use in saving the boys, she didn't want to help serve their purpose. Later she would help to repay Agnes' family and --I suspect-- turn in the boys to the police. So everybody wins, right?

In the beginning of the movie, Mija is struck by the suicide of Agnes. She questions Wook about it and he won't give her any answers. When she hears more, she's eager to learn more about what Agnes' life was like. From the beginning, one could tell that Mija wanted more than anything to get out of her life. She was seeking a beauty, a purpose in the meaninglessness of her life that she'd started to give up hope trying to find.

Her face was always sad. Even when she smiled she was sad. The only time she looked truly happy was when she was absorbed in the intensive process of writing one poem--the artwork that finally allowed her to speak volumes, the hymn of an individual who couldn't speak and couldn't be heard and found a way to speak and be heard, through simple, beautiful words on a paper.

Artists for centuries have figured out how to use a voice by means of art. Sometimes, it's the only way an artist is actually ever heard. This concept is nothing new, but watching this unfold in the way the director/writer Chang-Dong Lee creates it in Poetry is beautiful and hopeful at the same time.

Lesson: If no one's listening, go jump off a bridge.

Poetry: What Did I Just Watch?

 

She thinks apples are for eating.

 

Poetry is probably the greatest smack in the face to my expectations I’ve ever encountered in a movie since I realized that almost the entirety of Robin Williams’ Patch Adams was a filthy lie. I expected a film about an innocent old woman just dealing with growing old in Korea when I walked into the auditorium last night. After an image of a dead girl’s boy in a river simple grandmother named Mija is raising her irresponsible and lazy grandson Wook, who obsesses with computers, television, and music, and is having some minor health problems; the dead girl was a bit off, but my expectations were pretty sound up to that point. Then, completely out of the blue, some guy we’ve never met before calls Mija up and takes her to a meeting with the fathers of Wook’s friends to tell her that Wook and their sons all raped that girl in the river for years before she committed suicide. They then nonchalantly discuss how horrible this incident will be for their sons’ careers and that they’re just going to throw some money at the poor girl’s family to keep them quiet.

Wow.

When I first saw Wook, I thought the film was becoming an anti-media message about how today’s youth was obsessed with technology. Instead, he’s losing all empathy after joining his friends in sexually abusing a girl at school. Talk about not judging a book (or in this case, a film) by its cover. I came to loathe the kid, not only through the fact that he and his friends raped that poor girl, but through his sheer lack of empathy for his actions and even his disregard for his sole caretaker. He is a monster, and we quickly come to hate him for it. Every scene with him completely blowing off his grandmother to watch TV or just sulk into his bedroom was painful to watch, especially since we know how much Mija is torn over her love for him and her desire to despise him.

Some people in Signs and Wonders said they never saw the end coming. The moment I realized that Mija was dealing with Alzheimer’s and her grandson’s horrific actions, I knew what the outcome was going to be, and when she collected Agnes’ picture from the church that verified it for me. That being said, while I understood the plot of the movie easily, I feel like I didn’t get all of its messages. I actually didn’t pay all that much attention to Agnes’ Song, which I should have, but I had seen the ending coming from so far away that I just zoned out over the final minute or so of the movie to admire the cinematography. I will definitely need to see this film again, if only to look for the meanings that were lost on me so I stop feeling like a horrible person for missing them.

In closing, I made the mistake of judging a film by its cover and I was too engrossed in just how well the film was shot and how well the actors pulled off their roles that I missed all the messages that went with it all. Even the poem, which was the focus of the whole movie.

Poetry

This movie has a lot of really good stuff in it. I think the main theme that permeated the whole film was how Mija, the main character, experienced all of life like a poem. Her grandson and his five other friends were guilty of repeatedly raping a fellow schoolgirl, who ended up committing suicide because of it. Mija and the parents of the other boys had to pay the mother of the girl the eqivalent of $5,000 each to settle the case out of court, but Mija didn't have the money. The fathers of the other boys seemed to only care about their sons' future, and pressured Mija to pay up. This heavy situation deeply affected her, eventually causing her to kill herself as well. The moments before her death, however, were filled with this desire for poetry.

Mija longed to be able to write poetry; she took notes on things that she periodically observed and experienced over time, giving herself ideas for what to write. However, she was never able to really write poetry like she wanted to, until the ending when her poem is read, and it is written from the perspective of the schoolgirl who committed suicide. Mija used her own life's experiences to give a voice to the girl, and simultaneously to herself.

This connection between Mija and the girl I believe speaks of a common bond that humans all have with each other, or at least there is the potential to have it. Like one of the character in the movie said, poetry comes from your feelings and your heart. There is no formula to write poetry; it's always there in you, waiting to come out - you just need to let it flow. Mija found her voice through the eyes of one who died without one; someone who went through so much, yet the world had no clue of the pain she had inside of her. The poem expressed that pain and loss beautifully, and I think it could only have done so because Mija knew what it was to experience something terrible. She didn't necessarily go through the same form of torture, but her pain was no less substantial.

All of us have our stories that we probably will never fully share. Every single one of these stories has enough power in it to create the most beautiful poem in the world, and even then the poem will not be able to accurately portray what we feel. I think that this film reminds us of our value as individuals, and how this value is hardly ever seen or understood - even by ourselves. But it is still there, and it should be given a voice, because our lives are priceless.

Poetry

In general, I've tried to stay away from foreign films, but it's mostly because I feel too lazy to read subtitles. I know this is a stupid excuse, especially because I've enjoyed every foreign film that I've seen, and last night was no exception.

The best aspect of the film that I keep coming back to is the simple yet powerful pacing throughout the story, despite all the technological hiccups. There were never any voice overs for us to see the characters' thoughts, but rather we were shown her actions and emotions when she visited the science lab for example. And through her exploration of poetry, despite the developing Alzheimer's disease, we can clearly see her emotions. Still, the ending is so subtle that it's hard to catch exactly what happens. I know there were some in the room who clearly stated how they hated the ending, but I appreciate a story that keeps me intrigued right until the very last frame.

Leeper also drew connections with two characters in the movie—the girl and the grandma. The relationships and similarities between the characters is also so subtle, but it's extremely important to the story because it's the only way you can understand what happens.

I struggled with the concept of what the group of fathers were doing. We are only shown the grandma's relationship with her grandson, but it's very obvious that she doesn't know how to handle him. The fathers are so concerned about covering up what their sons did, rather than make them feel the punishment for their crime. We aren't shown any signs of guilt from any of them. This also makes me wonder though—did the grandma turn in her grandson? When the detective character was introduced at the poetry reading, I thought there might be a connection later, but it still doesn't make sense. Why would she turn him in after already paying the money, only to turn around and leave the picture completely? When had she made that decision in relationship to when she called the mother?

One note about spoilers: I tried to keep them out of this post, but don't complain if you haven't seen this one before and it was just ruined. This film is worth watching even if you know the ending, so if you haven't seen it, it's on Netflix.