[HanCinema's Busan International Film Festival Movie Review] "Daughter" by Koo Hye-sun

In the present day San-i (played by Koo Hye-sun) frequents wide open spaces. Somehow the perspective feels immensely claustrophobic. The immediately following flashback initially does little to explain why. Young San-i (played by Jung Ji-so) is on an outing with her mother (played by Shim Hye-jin). There's lots of picture-taking- a very tedious process some fifteen years ago, back before everyone did it with cell phones spontaneously. And as it turns out, that's not the only part of San-i's life that's heavily regimented.

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Probably the most frequently appearing implied question in "Daughter" is why San-i's mother, a woman who openly claims to despise and hate her own child, went and had a kid in the first place. The reasons for this are never stated explicitly, but I think the most likely explanation is just inertia. This morphed into regret for the woman now unable to have any other ambition in life aside from being a parent, turned into projection as she hoped her daughter could avoid a similar fate, and finally rage because why is she so ungrateful why won't she just listen.

"Daughter" ultimately ends up turning into an argument about why certain people really shouldn't have children, specifically the ones who go into it with expectations. Even if we take at face value the arguments San-i's mother makes about how following the plan is the girl's best chance to succeed in life, what with all the disadvantages they're facing, she's also controlling in ways that simply come off as ridiculous, even when there's clear motherly affection behind them. Note the scene in the hospital with the tray of food.

However it happened, San-i's mother has become a miserable ball of hatred. It's all too appropriate that she's never actually named, as the woman has no sense of identity outside of her daughter. Note the extremely cold and aloof way she regards her husband. This man has tolerated her abuse for decades, and even in the present day tries to express kindness and love to a woman who mostly just seems to resent him.

His actual appearance in the film is so negligent as to barely be worth noting, except to establish one essential point- it does get easier. It doesn't actually get better. From the beginning it seems obvious San-i's mother will go to her grave being basically hateful and miserable, and that the only comfort San-i really has is that eventually her mother will die and also that San-i does not have to, inevitably, turn into her own mother. That's all the hope San-i is going to get.

It's a pretty weak endorsement but writer/director Koo Hye-sun wisely avoids trying to give the viewer any kind of easy answer about child abuse, or condescend some kind of magical solution which simply won't work in the real world. For the people who have to live with this kind of trauma, it's a scary painful atmosphere that can only be lightened by giving, receiving and accepting genuine love. Be thankful, in the end, if you have the opportunity to give that much.

Review by William Schwartz

"Daughter" is directed by Koo Hye-sun and features Shim Hye-jin, Koo Hye-sun and Jung Ji-so.