Portraying three generations of women in South Korea, the film centres on the figure of the mother, using her story to explore the connections and politics that shape women’s lived realities. While her daughter, Green – a university lecturer and gay rights activist – remains emotionally distant at first, the mother devotes more and more time to caring for an elderly woman.
The film addresses the issues of caregiving and belonging, framed against state policies that tie them to the institution of the heterosexual family. When financial difficulties force Green to move into her mother’s apartment with her partner, the mother initially distances herself from the lesbian couple. She takes on more responsibility for her patient, who is suffering from dementia. The elderly woman’s condition serves as a pivotal element shaping the possible futures of each protagonist.
Through its focused perspective on the mother, the film connects spaces of wage labour and care work, revealing how political structures intertwine. Not only the private home but also the nursing home and university follow financial logics that dictate how social life is organised. Queer hostility at the university restricts mobility just as much as time and resource shortages in the nursing home.
This film is based on Kim Hye-jin’s novel of the same name, where the mother is the first-person narrator.