Review

In Sumbisori, the lives of the three generations of female protagonists seem to repeat themselves. Mother Ok-ran berates her daughter Haejin for giving up on taking the civil examination and returning to Jeju Island, while grandmother Kangja agonizes deeply over seeing Ok-ran return to her hometown after losing her husband. Haejin declares that she will become a haenyeo (female diver) just as Ok-ran did in the past, while Ok-ran tries to dissuade her, worrying that the same suffering she experienced will be passed on to her daughter. But Sumbisori is not simply a story of hardship across three generations. The reason Haejin wants to start a new life on Jeju is not out of bitterness or sadness but belief that the island is the only place that can heal the scars visited on her by her experience in Seoul. With the love and encouragement of her older friends there and her "aunts" among the divers, she gains the courage to find her feet again. Ok-ran embarks on her own new romance, and seeing this allows Kangja to prepare to pass on to the next life. Sumbisori is a film that shows the lives of people who mature with the passage of time. The spirit of the film is captured in the actions of Kangja, who fills the dish of her escaped dog in the belief that it will "return when the time is right" and be upset if its dish is empty when it does. (MOON Seok)

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