Those who know me well know of my devotion to Asian cinema. Devotion, release after release, it is becoming more and more justified. And, admittedly, in recent years the best and most interesting proposals from Asia. This time I had the pleasure of enjoying the viewing of Shi (Poetry) , the ultimate realization of the Korean Changdong Lee, who was honored at last year's Cannes Film Festival with prize for best script.
Poetry is a film that bears much relation to the magnificent Secret Sunshine, former director's job, to the point of being characterized as a complement or extension of it.
In a difficult moment for Korean society, who lives with expectant anxiety of having to monitor their movements sideways warlike northern neighbors, Lee directs his camera Changdong to the ordinary citizen, and without great fanfare, shows how he faces life when it presents its most bitter.
If Secret Sunshine were attending to the process by which the woman protagonist, recently widowed, was clinging to religion as a lifeline to face the kidnapping of his young son in Poetry see as its protagonist, a woman again, seek consolation in a poetry workshop after discovering her grandson's involvement in the rape of a classmate.
The mere idea of \u200b\u200bthinking that have transformed the script into the hands of every Hollywood producer gives me insomnia. No doubt you have been, we would be talking about a product corny, not suitable for diabetics, full of harrowing overbearing and full of close-ups of faces in order to force players to show feelings that are not able to suggest the interpretation. All wrapped up, of course, a sappy soundtrack composed of stale melodies. Fortunately Poetry and Lee Changdong are the antithesis of all this.
First, Poetry is a film that, without being too slow, take your time and fully leverages its 139 minutes of footage to build his masterly character actor and to show the process by which he learns to discover the beauty hidden in the most everyday events. The
film has many advantages being perhaps the most important work done by his impressive actress, veteran Hie Jeong-Yun , who, after 16 years of inactivity, he returned to the big screen to offer that will undoubtedly be one of the performances of the year. And this veteran actress creates a nuanced character. A character whose appearance hides a jovial and carefree anguish and suffering that we find based on gestures and glances, no noise, no histrionics, no tricks, with a friendly camera that does not approach beyond the median plane.
And so we come to that is another great asset of this, for me perfect movie: how is shot.
say that the film is beautifully photographed film is redundant in the case of Asia, so that will not go into the subject. It is more interesting to stress upon the way Changdong Lee uses his camera.
director's camera is, as just discussed, and above all, respectful. With shots and media and giving great prominence to the depth of field throughout the narrative avoids theatricality and artifice and overcomes the temptation to become a melodrama with no soul. Departing conveniently is able to integrate moments of great drama with everyday situations and make it subtly (Copy in this respect, the scene in which, at a general level that follows a Mija on your ride home from the hospital, you see, in the background, the desperation of a woman who just lost his daughter .)
At other times the narrative is also at risk of getting overly sentimental tone, as are the moments when the poetry workshop members make their declamations, the situation is resolved to perfection to take a documentary style camera.
The icing on the cake at the end when we find, once we learned that even the most bitter and painful moments of life can be discovered beauty accompany the girl raped for not leaving her alone in his dramatic decision.
Poetry is, in short and for me a perfect movie. Full of beauty (like the voice of the sexagenarian actor recites his poetry as the written order is being replaced by that of the young is one of the most beautiful moments that the film has given me a long time), suggestive, subtle, beautifully performed , which awakens in us the need to learn to watch and reminds us of the need to let go of the band that usually hides our eyes and prevents us from discovering the beauty that lies behind the simplest things such as contemplation of a tree, a flower or a peach burst.
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