1 of 4 | “Concerning My Daughter” by Lee Mirang showcases Oh Min-ae as a woman experiencing growing isolation in the world. This photo is courtesy of the Busan International Film Festival.
BUSAN, South Korea — Oct. 12 (UPI) — When we first encounter the unnamed protagonist in Lee Mirang’s Concerning My Daughter, a widow in her 50s portrayed by the talented Oh Min-ae, she sits alone, eating in front of the television.
Her life isn’t solely spent in solitude, but rather permeated with a familiar middle-age loneliness. She engages in banter with colleagues at the senior care facility where she works and exchanges pleasantries with neighbors, but she keeps herself emotionally distant, her face revealing unspoken depths.
We are also introduced to her daughter, Green (Lim Semi), a part-time university lecturer who seems primarily interested in borrowing money from her mother, and her patient, Ms. Lee (Heo Jin) — an elderly woman who was once renowned for aiding underprivileged children around the world but is now deteriorating mentally, without any family by her side.
The mother’s routine undergoes a shake-up when Green, desperate for financial assistance, moves back home along with her long-term partner, a woman named Rain (Ha Yoon-kyung). As a same-sex couple, they face additional distance in a South Korean society where LGBTQ rights are limited.
“I wanted to highlight the solitude of these four women, how it transcends different generations,” Lee shared with UPI during an interview at the Busan International Film Festival, where the movie premiered this week. “What that solitude could mean, could signify — that’s what I wanted to focus on.”
Concerning My Daughter, which marks Lee’s directorial debut, is based on the best-selling novel by Kim Hye-jin from 2017 (English translation published in 2022).
Instead of alleviating her loneliness, having company at home further isolates the mother. She fails to accept her daughter’s relationship as anything substantial, dismissing it as mere “playing house” and a deviation from the traditional path towards settling down in a conventional family. This attitude is driven less by overt prejudice and more by her increasing fear that both she and her daughter will die alone, experiencing the heart-wrenching and undignified fate she witnesses daily with Ms. Lee. This fear threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the mother pushes Green away while simultaneously investing all her energy into what appears to be a lost cause: rescuing her aging patient from an increasingly bleak destiny.
“The mother represents the type of woman we frequently encounter in South Korea, who has always had to prioritize taking care of others over herself,” Lee explained. “I hope this film can serve as a catalyst for conversations about this issue.”
Rain, on the other hand, persistently tries to be a considerate guest. However, her offers of home-cooked meals or freshly brewed pour-over coffee as an aspiring chef are met with stern refusal.
“Can we try to avoid crossing paths?” the mother eventually snaps at her.
Rain refuses to be easily deterred. In a character portrayal that may appear too coincidental, she mirrors the mother’s caregiver role, relentlessly chipping away at her icy exterior with genuine sincerity.
Concerning My Daughter is far too complex to neatly tie everything together, leaving ambiguity lingering as the credits roll. However, there is a moment when the icy barrier begins to crack, offering a glimpse of three distinct generations finally connecting, and it carries an immense emotional weight.
“The film isn’t just about the daughter mentioned in the title, or the mother,” Lee remarked. “Ultimately, the story encompasses a piece of each of us.”
Within the film, it is Rain who seems to have the clearest understanding of what is really at stake.
“Being together,” she tells the mother, “is the only thing we can do.”
Concerning My Daughter received the CGV Award at the Vision Awards of the Busan International Film Festival, held on Thursday evening.
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