The moment I watched this movie’s trailer (which I’ve embedded below, at the end of this quick review), I knew that I would love this movie, and I also knew that it would make me cry.

I believed that those tears would be worthwhile, and now that I’ve come out the other side, I am happy to report that I was right. I did cry, and it did feel worthwhile. 🥲🥲

Definitely recommend. ❤️

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

The story of Bok Ja (Kim Hae Sook), a ghost who’s granted a special 3-day vacation after her death, and how she spends that vacation visiting her daughter, Jin Ju (Shin Min Ah).

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS / THE VIEWING LENS

Here are a few things that I think would be helpful to keep in mind, to maximize your enjoyment of your watch:

1. This movie leans bittersweet

I guess that’s fairly obvious, given the premise of our story, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

There is a lot of emotion in this story, ranging from wistfulness, to regret, to love, but because Bok Ja is a ghost, this movie is inherently bittersweet.

I would say though, that there is more emphasis on the sweet, than the bitter, and that this is overall, a healing story. 🥲

2. The pacing is measured

Some might say that Show’s measured pace is slow, but I personally found this to be very well-paced, in a thoughtful and unhurried way.

I think it would be helpful to watch this when you’re not in a hurry.

3. Your mileage may vary

What I mean is, we all come with our own personal contexts, and therefore we all have different experiences when it comes to our relationships with our mothers.

I do think that some of the beats in this story would hit closer to home for some than for others.

Either way, I do think that this watch is worthwhile. 🥲

STUFF I LIKED

The way Show unfolds our story

The way Show sets up its story, is that we start when Bok Ja arrives for her vacation, and is briefed on the whole thing, by her heavenly guide (Kang Ki Young).

We don’t know anything about Bok Ja’s relationship with her daughter Jin Ju, in the beginning of our story, but Show serves up various jigsaw pieces along the way, via the memories that our various characters tap into.

I found that I really liked this, because I felt like with each jigsaw piece of memory given to us, my understanding of the relationship between Bok Ja and Jin Ju, grew into sharper focus.

Alongside, I also felt my emotions in response to this relationship, grow into sharper focus, with each step towards better understanding what their connection was all about.

Overall, I thought this was very well done, and made for an enriching watch experience.

Kim Hae Sook as Bok Ja

Kim Hae Sook is always outstanding, and this outing is as fantastic as I’d expected it to be.

Bok Ja starts out as being quite cantankerous, but it really isn’t long before her tender heart starts to peek out, and then by the end of the movie she had my heart all in my throat – but I’ll talk about that later, in the spoiler section.

For now, I just wanted to give Kim Hae Sook the kudos she deserves, for being wonderful as Bok Ja.

Shin Min Ah as Jin Ju

I love Shin Min Ah as well, so it was great to see her in the role of Jin Ju, who’s doing everything she can, to come to terms with Bok Ja’s death, and all of the regrets and questions that she has in her heart, in relation to Bok Ja.

I found Shin Min Ah’s portrayal very natural and restrained, which I thought fit the role perfectly.

Really well done, I thought.

Bok Ja and Jin Ju together [BROAD SPOILERS]

Even though Bok Ja’s a ghost and therefore Jin Jin can’t see her, nor hear her, Show does a really good job of managing to put them in the same frame in a meaningful way, like this shot above, of Bok Ja watching Jin Ju make the same food that Bok Ja had once made.

Without getting too much into spoilers, I’ll just say that I found it meaningful to see the way mother and daughter had shared memories, and to see how they each felt about those memories.

It was also meaningful to see Jin Ju work to connect with her mother, through recreating the food that Bok Ja had used to cook, and how much she treasures those flavors, and the memories that the flavors conjure up.

THOUGHTS ON THE STORY & ENDING [SPOILERS]

As our story progresses, it becomes clear that Jin Ju is really struggling to come to terms with Bok Ja’s death, and a large part of the reason is because they’d had a complex and strained relationship for much of Jin Ju’s life.

And, as the bigger picture of their relationship became clearer, it was easy to see that Bok Ja loved Jin Ju more than anything in the world, and would do anything for her baby girl, even if it was at a high cost to herself.

After all, that’s the whole reason that Bok Ja had remarried, and settled Jin Ju with her brother and sister-in-law instead; it was the only way she’d had, at the time, of gaining financial security, so that she would be able to pay for Jin Ju’s expenses.

And so, when Bok Ja starts to understand that Jin Ju’s in a really bad place, emotionally and mentally, and is carrying a lot of guilt for how she’d kept Bok Ja at a distance when Bok Ja had been alive, it made perfect sense to me, that she would want to help Jin Ju overcome this – and that she would pay any price necessary, in order to do it.

And what greater price could there be, but that Bok Ja would lose all her memories of Jin Ju, if she were to talk to Jin Ju.

Yet, Bok Ja only pauses for a long second to process the price, before she tells her guide, that she wanted to go ahead with it, because all that mattered to her, was that Jin Ju would be able to live well, here and now.

The scenes that followed, where Bok Ja interacts with Jin Ju, are the most precious that this movie has to offer.

It warmed my heart so, to see Jin Ju welcome Bok Ja with such gentle joy, and ask her where she’s been, because she’s been waiting to cook her a birthday meal, complete with seaweed soup.

How touching, truly, that Jin Ju really had all the ingredients on hand, like she said, even though she could have no hope that Bok Ja would actually be able to eat the meal.

So how very, very precious it is, that Jin Ju gets to cook for Bok Ja, and that Bok Ja gets to eat her food, and praise her cooking.

It’s such a great callback to the memory that we’d seen, of Bok Ja cooking up a table full of food for Jin Ju, the day that Jin Ju had gotten off early from school, and had visited Bok Ja at her employer’s home.

Unlike that memory, however, this time, mother and daughter do share a meal, and it absolutely feels like this meal makes up for that other meal, which had turned into an emotional wound for Jin Ju.

This meal that Jin Ju serves, is like the balm to heal that wound, and I love it. 🥲

And I love that after the meal, as they sit under the stars, Jin Ju tells Bok Ja that she’d thought about her a lot while in the US, and that she’d remembered only the happy memories, and Bok Ja tells Jin Ju that she’d never abandoned her once, even in her dreams, and that she’d only wanted Jin Ju to have a better life than she’d had.

That feels so mutually healing and beautiful, especially when Jin Ju tells Bok Ja that she’s all grown up now, thanks to Bok Ja’s efforts, and is living the good life that Bok Ja had made so many sacrifices for her to have.

Augh. It’s so beautiful.

I also loved the scene where they lie together in bed, talking, because that was something that Jin Ju had once said that they weren’t close enough to do that kind of thing.

It’s so wonderful, that they get to do that in this moment, and prove to themselves, that that had never been true. 🥲

It was heartbreaking to see the guide proceed to erase all of Bok Ja’s memories of Jin Ju 😭, but it’s so comforting to see, the next morning, that Jin Ju truly has received all the emotional healing that she’d needed.

Not only that, it’s such a comfort to see that Bok Ja had left Jin Ju a letter, in her old journals that Jin Ju’s been reading, and in it, she tells Jin Ju that she’d had a lovely time visiting her on her vacation, and wishes that Jin Ju would live a fun and happy life until she’s a hundred – and, one day, even if Bok Ja can’t remember her, that Jin Ju would come look for her.

Augh. My heart. 🥹

That’s such a beautifully tender, hopeful note on which to end our story. Because of course Jin Ju would remember Bok Ja, even if Bok Ja couldn’t remember her.

And that’s how their bond will never be broken, even if Bok Ja’s memories are no longer. 🥲❤️

THE FINAL VERDICT:

Poignant, tender and healing. Very worthwhile.

FINAL GRADE: A-

TRAILER:

WHERE TO WATCH:

Show is available on VIU.

Getting around geo-restrictions

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