Poetry (2010) on Netflix
Yang Mi-ja cares for Mr. Kang, who has had a stroke, and for her ill-mannered grandson Jong-wook. She forgets everyday words, and a poetry class at a community center draws her in.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.8/1015,075 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Yang Mi-ja, 66, works part-time looking after Mr. Kang, an old man who has had a stroke, and at home cares for Jong-wook, her ill-mannered 16-year-old grandson, whose divorced mother lives in Busan. She tells a doctor that everyday words keep slipping away, and he advises her to have it checked. A poster at a community center advertises a poetry class, and she enrolls. The month-long course asks for a single poem, and her teacher suggests she note down what she sees, flowers especially. Then Ki-beom's father insists she join the other boys' fathers at a meeting.
Cast
- Kim Yong-taekas Poet Kim Yong-taek
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Poetry (2010)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Poetry grew out of a real case in which a small-town schoolgirl was raped by a gang of teenage boys; director Lee Chang-dong heard about the incident and it stayed with him, though he had no interest in filming the actual events.
- The vision for the film came to Lee Chang-dong in a Japanese hotel room, where he watched a television program made entirely of relaxing nature shots — a peaceful river, birds, fishermen, soft new-age music — and a feature film idea began to form.
- Lee Chang-dong wrote the lead character of Yang Mi-ja specifically for Yoon Jeong-hee, a major star of Korean cinema in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Poetry was Yoon Jeong-hee's first film part since 1994: before it, her last screen appearance was in Manmubang ("Two Flags").
- Lee Chang-dong announced he would boycott the 31st Blue Dragon Film Awards, so the jury excluded Poetry from the selection but still nominated Yoon Jeong-hee for Best Actress; the prize was shared by Yoon and Soo Ae, for Midnight FM.
- Yoon Jeong-hee won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, the second consecutive year a Korean actress took the prize, following Kim Hye-ja's win for Mother.
