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A devastating, quietly humane drama that turns memory loss, class pressure, and moral horror into something tender and unsparing at once. It’s especially rewarding if you like films that observe ordinary life with patience before revealing deep emotional and ethical fault lines.
Where to watch: Buy
Thu · 2h 19m
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Starring: Yoon Jeong-hee, David Lee, Kim Hee-ra
A South Korean woman in her sixties enrolls in a poetry class as she grapples with her faltering memory and her grandson's appalling wrongdoing.
Lee Chang-dong
Yoon Jeong-hee, David Lee, Kim Hee-ra
A devastating, quietly humane drama that turns memory loss, class pressure, and moral horror into something tender and unsparing at once. It’s especially rewarding if you like films that observe ordinary life with patience before revealing deep emotional and ethical fault lines.
Poetry is one of those films that feels gentle right up until it doesn’t. Lee Chang-dong builds a portrait of an elderly woman trying to remain attentive to beauty, language, and daily ritual while her life is quietly collapsing around her. The result is deeply moving without ever begging for tears.
What makes it extraordinary is the way it links artistic awakening to moral awakening. The poetry class is not a decorative subplot; it becomes a way of seeing, of noticing what the world has hidden in plain sight. That clarity makes the film’s central tragedy even more painful, because the more Mi-ja learns to look, the more unbearable reality becomes.
This is a film of restraint, compassion, and accumulating dread. It’s not easy, but it is profoundly alive, and it lingers long after the final scene.
aprilxiong (4.5★) · 1982 likes
Agnes' Song How is it over there?How lonely is it?Is it still glowing red at sunset?Are the birds still singing on the way to the forest?Can you receive the letter I dared not send?Can I convey…the confession I dared not make?Will time pass and roses fade?Now it's time to say goodbyeLike the wind that lingers and then goes,just like shadowsTo promises that never came,to the love sealed till… more
reibureibu (5★) · 593 likes
Memory blurring sight by never letting us forget, past details always intruding on the present. Mi-ja forgets and it impedes her life, but in doing so she can always see the now and what is now. A beautiful day, with beautiful flowers and beautiful fruit, untarnished by the cruel task she was meant to complete. A kind man, a generous man, unsullied by the boundaries he crossed yesterday. A child, pure child, sweet child of mine, undefiled by the evil
DirkH (4.5★) · 554 likes
One of the things that intrigues me when I look at my two year old son is his slowly growing command of our language. He struggles, tries and discovers a new realm of possibilities. I feel a bit like that right now. I feel to adequately capture the beauty of this film I need to learn how to speak again. I struggle with the limitations of my vocabulary, waiting for words to come and express the resounding emotions that resonate
Adi (5★) · 369 likes
He may not have the twisting genre conventions or the subtle satire of Bong Joon-Ho He may not have the hyper-violent narratives or the earth-shattering twists of Park Chan-Wook. He may not have the avant-garde filmmaking style or the deeply philosophical themes of Kim Ki-Duk. But what makes Lee Chang-Dong my favourite Korean filmmaker is that his films are just...profoundly human. Poetry is yet another reminder that Lee Chang-Dong isn't the face of New Wave Korean Cinema but the very… more
KYK (4.5★) · 271 likes
lee chang-dong is great at critiquing unchecked masculinity but his best and most heartbreaking movies (this being one of them) come from women's perspectives. 35mm. MoMA.
Another devastating Lee Chang-dong drama about grief, faith, and the limits of human understanding, with a similarly patient but shattering emotional build.
Shares the director’s compassion for marginalized lives and his interest in society’s cruelty toward vulnerable people.
A masterclass in quiet tension, social unease, and hidden moral rot beneath everyday surfaces.
A humane, observant family drama about poverty, care, and the fragile ethics of survival.
For viewers drawn to moral complexity, domestic conflict, and the painful collision of duty and truth.
A devastating study of neglected children and the silence surrounding family abandonment.
An understated family drama that finds emotional force in small gestures, resentment, and memory.
A restrained grief drama that explores how loss reorganizes a family’s emotional life.
Long-form moral drama with rich dialogue, class tension, and deep interiority.
For its patient social observation and tragic sense of lives shaped by forces beyond their control.
An immersive humanist classic about labor, poverty, and the quiet endurance of rural life.
A foundational film about aging, family indifference, and the ache of being overlooked.
aging, memory loss, poetry and art, moral responsibility, family neglect, class inequality, female perspective, grief
slow cinema, Korean drama, social realism, elderly protagonist, memory loss, moral crisis, family tragedy, poetic tone, emotional restraint, bleak