Marking the debut of Sue Kim and Malala Yousafzai‘s new production company, Extracurricular, “The Last of the Sea Women” focuses on haenyeo, a group of Korean women sea divers now declared UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Last of the Sea Women is screening at Busan International Film Festival
These women have been depicted before in cinema, as much as their Japanese equivalent, Ama, but “The Last of the Sea Women” probably offers the most thorough and impressive presentation. Essentially split in three parts, the documentary begins by showing the individuals that make up the haenyo group in Jeju, all of which seem to be in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s. The depiction of how these women, who would be considered elderly all over the world, still manage to free dive a number of times every day in order to catch sea urchins and make a living for them and their families, is impressive by itself.
Furthermore, their interviews reveal the hardships they faced in the past, including prejudice due to the fact that the sun made their faces tanned, but also the joy the whole endeavor brought them and continues to do so until this day. The problem with the increase of the temperature in the oceans and the pollution of the water is also mentioned, although this aspect is mostly dealt with in the last part.
The dwindling number of the haenyo brings us to the second part, introducing a school of haenyo training and its two ‘stars’ YouTubers Jin Sohee and Woo Jeongmin. These two, much younger women showcase that there is still a future in the profession, while Kim also takes care of presenting how their family life is, making their portrait even more thorough.
The last part deals extensively with the pollution of the waters and particularly the efforts of the haenyo and a number of other activist groups to prevent the discharge of Japanese radioactive wastewater in the Pacific Ocean. The consequences become quite evident throughout the documentary, as the pollution essentially is ‘killing the business’ of these women, apart from leading to huge ecological disasters over the passing of time. Their efforts, which include traveling abroad to speak about the issue, make them appear even more heroic, concluding the doc in the most fitting fashion.
Apart from its context, “The Last of the Sea Women” is also impressive in audiovisual terms. Iris Ng and Cho Eun-soo’s cinematography offers a number of astonishing images of Jeju, the ocean, both in its depth and its surface. Furthermore, their camera follows these women quite closely, highlighting the trust Sue Kim and her crew garnered from the haenyo, in an approach that definitely adds to the quality of the doc. Erin Casper, Kim Yeong-a and Stacy Kim’s editing results in a relatively fast pace, which both presents the main theme thoroughly and offers entertainment, particularly in the combination of images and the sound of haenyo songs, which are definitely a pleasure to both eyes and ears.
Although there is definitely a sense of pessimism in “The Last of the Sea Women” , essentially stressed even from the title, the documentary ends up being a film about the triumph of these women by simply continuing to live and work in the same traditional way. Furthermore, and beyond the rather impressive presentation, it also sends a message against the ecological destruction of the planet, thus fulfilling the quintessence of the documentary as a medium.
