DIFF 2010 - Shi (Poetry)

The story of a grandmother's poetry with life in the middle of her struggles of daily survival. At the face of it the story is about a well-spirited, 60 yr-old woman who is raising her grandson after his mother divorced and left for another town. The grandmother who earns by serving as a part time caretaker to an old paralysed man, is also enterprising and pursues life as a dream of reality. She joins a poetry class and is in search of her perfect piece during the course of the month that we travel with her. The plot thickens as she is faced with having to answer for her grandsons horrifying misdeed in school, her own ailment which is slowly creeping in on her and a quest to finding the poetry.

Well-dealt light-comical performance by the lead actress, but still a poorly established set of relationships. The overall characterization seems hesitant and the storyline feels jerky. The screenplay seems like a juggle between the many sub-plots like fragments which spring up to remind the viewer time to time of aspects that are easy to forget in the whole gamut of twists to the plot. Several aspects of the story remian unanswered, for instance, the introduction of the grandmothers Alzhiemers' disease, the poetic execution which was sorely missing, the daughter as an alien over the phone. etc.

Cinematography and overlay of the poetic element seem attempted at the most, but fail to leave any lasting impression. Though an easy watch, one longs for the peaking of emotions that are drawn up but left high and dry.

3:30pm, 18.12.10 MOE 7