Q&A: Lee Chang-dong

"Poetry," Lee Chang-dong's fifth feature film, boldly chooses an ambivalent theme to depict an alluring allegory of pain and beauty. The work, which will compete in Cannes' official selection, continues an exploration of forgiveness that the director began in "Secret Sunshine," the story of a young woman whose son is murdered by his voice teacher. The heroine in "Poetry" is a sixty-something woman named Mija (played by Yun Jeong-hee) who rears a grandson and nurses an elderly neighbor to support herself. One day, she signs up for an amateur poetry class and, as she tries to write her first poem, learns her grandson was involved in the gang rape of a local schoolgirl. "There's no particular theme in this film," Lee says. But the word "poetry" emerging from the film's opening image of a dead body floating on tranquil river brings to mind the loss of innocence seen in such earlier Lee works as "Peppermint Candy" and "Green Fish." Lee spoke with The Hollywood Reporter's Korea correspondent Park Soo-mee about the meaning of poetry in film.