Bae Chang-ho directs this sumptuously-photographed, subtly-told drama about the ill-fated life of one woman during the 20th century. The film opens in the 1920s when a teenaged Sun-yi (star and co-screenwriter Kim Yu-mi) is married off to the ten-year-old son of a provincial doctor. Though harassed by her traditionally minded in-laws, Sun-yi patiently goes about her duties until her husband returns from college with an attractive, fashionably dressed "classmate." When she learns that her husband's new friend is pregnant, Sun-yi quietly packs her belongings and leaves. Later, she is running a small distillery all by herself. When Duk-sun (Kim Myeong-kon), an itinerant potter, stops by, a wary relationship develops between the two. Unfortunately, just as the deeply suspicious Sun-yi is about to open her heart to him, Duk-sun is killed in an accident. The film's final act finds a middle-aged Sun-yi barely eking out a living. In spite of this, she takes in a young woman and her son. When the young woman is carted off by a thuggish man claiming to be her husband, Sun-yi adopts the child. This film received rave reviews and a Special Jury prize at the 1999 Benodet Film Festival in France.
by Jonathan Crow
synopsis
