Family Ties

Mira is a shy, single woman who runs a small restaurant and tends her plants with love and care. Her life is thrown into mayhem when her brother Hyung Chul, shows up out of the blue after five years’ absence, some of them spent in jail. Hyung-chul not only settles down at Mira’s place but is soon joined by his new wife, Mu-Shin, a much older woman who smokes like a chimney – and Mira’s a non-smoker. As if the house wasn’t crowded enough, Mu-shin’s young stepdaughter knocks at Mira’s door one fine day, and moves in. The film’s second part centers on Sun Kyung, who discovers that her mother – with whom she has a terribly difficult relationship – is seriously ill. Unhappy about her life, Sun Kyung decides to leave the country, but her plan is disrupted by her mother’s death and by the presence of Kyung-Suk, her half-brother. Like threads neatly woven into the fine tapestry of a vivid family portrait, the intertwined lives of these characters come together years later in the third section of the film.