Moonlit Winter

Yoon-hee is divorced and lives with her daughter. Her life is orderly but she seems to want nothing. Her daughter Sae-bom finds a letter in the post; it comes from Japan and is addressed to her mother. Sae-bom reads it and does not give it to her. Over the winter holiday she proposes a trip: they will go to Japan, to a small town called Otaru. Her mother agrees and does not ask why. There is snow in Otaru. The person who wrote the letter is there too. Something happened in Yoon-hee's youth and it was never discussed. Lim Dae-hyung writes and directs. Kim Hee-ae plays Yoon-hee and Kim So-hye plays Sae-bom; Yuko Nakamura is in the cast. It is a Korean production. The film drew wide interest among independent productions in Korea and took nominations at the national awards. Part of it was shot in Hokkaido; the snow and the town work inside the narrative. The matter it treats is an unspoken past; the film explains what happened late and sparingly. The narrative shows both countries; family pressure works in similar ways in Korea and Japan. The daughter's position is its second axis; she is the one who works it out and sets things moving. The narrative promises no reunion and the ending is left open. Its limit is pace; the narrative is very slow, there is little event, and the speech limited. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet Korean drama and winter narratives. Who it is not for: it is very slow, sad, and the ending uncertain.