The life of woman is an eternal issue both in the feminism and the macho camps, but this movie is not dealing with it as an issue but as a discourse. Why a trajectory of one normal prostitute's life can powerfully demonstrate the social milieu of the Korean past; and to what extent her life can be paralleled to the normal life in the same context?
These two questions are cast throughout this movie and no answer is sought. Only the process of its exploration and contemplation is intended and the Great Director Kwon-taek I'm concurrently maintains the suitable distance from the actual events in order to render the depth of objectivity.
His cinematography hyperboling the huge mountain cliff alludes to the great obstacle for a woman who comes to live a tattered life, and this is also one of the most important elements on the Korean traditional painting. The Korean traditional aesthetics become symbolically transferred into the traditional restraint of Korean society for a woman who had no choice but to take the path of a prostitute, and this metaphor becomes a brilliantly shining explanatory tool in the movie without any detailed lines.
A masterpiece of the maestro who has now come in front of a mirror in order to reflect the rear side of the contemporary society of Korea. If Mikio Naruse is still alive, he will definitely cast a jealousy on this work.
