Plot Summary
Winner of the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Poetry is an "achingly exquisite portrait" (Philadelphia Inquirer) of a woman's brave fight against Alzheimer's, and against her guilt over a relative's brutal crime. This highly acclaimed Korean drama (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) showcases a performance of "surpassing delicacy" (Los Angeles Times) by Yun Jung-hee, who was voted as her country's greatest actress in a public poll. She plays Mija, an aging part-time maid and full-time guardian of her apathetic grandson. Concerned by her frequent forgetfulness, she takes a poetry class at the local arts center to sharpen her mind. She begins to appreciate the wonders of the natural world, but a schoolgirl's suicide initiates a chain of tragic events that will change her life forever.
Credits
Director
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
100%- Reviews Counted: 61
- Fresh: 61
- Rotten: 0
- Average Rating: 8.6/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: [An] exquisite Korean drama by Secret Sunshine's Lee Chang-dong.
Fresh: A deceptively gentle tale with a tender ache at its center, as well as a performance from Yun Jung-hee that lingers long in the memory.
Fresh: "Poetry" is daring in the ways only quiet, unhurried but finally haunting films have the courage to be.
Fresh: Those with an eye for reading between the lines can find layers of meaning.
Customer Reviews
My Favorite Film of All Time
This is hands down the most emotionally impactful film I have ever seen. I think most of its brilliance lies in its ability to make the world feel as if it were completely familiar. We experience her pain with her, and as she progressively feels more and more alienated from everything around her, we do as well - a remarkable masterpiece of subjective narrative style. The ending will leave you speechless. Yun Junghee is brilliant as well.
A lonely, sharp, beautiful depiction of unfiltered pain.
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