He does not have a family but, as he is living alone and is a good, religious man, he accepts help from a group of well-educated young women who work as assistants to him. They are a group of four: Jenny, a specialist in classical language; Yeon-hee, an avid traveler; Yun-ja, who is a lawyer, and Yeong-hui, a researcher. On his birthday, he decides to write a new haiku for his first time, and entrusts the girls with the task. Soon, the events of his life come to be intertwined with the girls’ lives, as he becomes increasingly connected to each of them.
Gorgeous Images: The first scenes are extremely beautiful. We are in a traditional apartment, which is very bright, with lots of beautiful furniture, modern art on the walls and the ceiling, and even two statues of the Buddha. The main character, a man named Lee Jeok-yo, is 70 and lonely. He is a poet, and has no family. He lives alone and does not have many friends. He is even more lonely because he is not good looking, and he looks to be in his 60s.
The director, Ji-woo Jung, presents the opening shots very slowly, with great artistry, and in the first shot, there are three pieces of toast in front of him. The camera turns to the left, slowly, and then shows a close up of him, in profile. The toast turns into a piece of bread. The camera turns left again, slowly, and we see his upper body. He is in a traditional Korean outfit, and he has a hagwon (office) hat on. There is also a statue of a Buddha, right behind him. He has, right in front of him, a stack of new haiku. It appears that he has written a lot of haiku in the past and, to celebrate his 70th birthday, he has a lot to write about.
We hear a few moments of the narrative: he is sitting at the dining table, and has an older lady to take care of him. He has written a lot of haiku, and the narrator informs us that the haiku are to be written in a special character.
There is a special haiku character: the syllable “tong” or “tongu”, the only one that the Korean alphabet has. It can only be used
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