GRANDMOTHER’S FLOWER (Mun Jeong-hyun, South Korea). 89 minutes. Subtitled. Wednesday (May 6), 10 pm, Royal May 8, 1:30 pm, Cumberland 3. Rating: NN
Director Mun Jeong-hyun has gathered family stories that personalize the brutal torture and murder of civilians during the Korean war. The downside is that these tales are thinly explored.
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He focuses on the deaths of three important men in his grandmother’s life, but very little of these events is shown, and anecdotal detail from a large cast of characters dissipates the emotion.
While short animation clips over tales of bloodletting are inventive, lingering travel shots accompanying phone conversations are not, and the harsh lighting and mic rumble give the film a home-movie feel.
