[Movie] ¡®One Day¡¯ shows pain of motherhood

The wife of a couple suffering from the pain of sterility for a long time became pregnant finally, but a medical checkup found that the fetus is deformed with anencephalia. What would your decision be?

The husband, who devoted himself to decorating the room of his expected baby with Legos all night long for several days, made up his mind, gulping down tears, to have his wife have an abortion. But the wife, who was writing diary for her baby, furiously resists the killing of the fetus.

Director Han Ji-Seung depicted in the movie realistically the tearful efforts of a sterile couple to have a baby and the pain they had to suffer after the medical checkup found the fetus is deformed. The maternity for a baby that can live only one day stimulates the tears of viewers.

Heroine Jin-Won, played by Ko So-Young, is a lonely woman who lost her parents when she was young and was raised by her mother¡¯s sister. So, she cannot stand herself being hurt and scratches people around her, as well.

Her husband, Sok-Yun, played by Lee Sung-Jae, suggested an adoption, saying he is responsible for their sterility, but she argues, ¡°Why should I embrace the misfortune of others?¡± Furthermore, she attacks bitterly her aunt, who has not yet married when she was bringing her up: ¡°What does a woman who has not delivered a baby know?¡±

But the nine-month wait for just one day gradually changes Jin Won. She let her baby leave her when she practices a bigger love through the donation of the baby¡¯s organs. The mother¡¯s demure and the movie illustrate the theme that maternity is the source of all kinds of love. In this sense, the casting of Ko So-Young with the image of a thorny rose as Jin Won is a half success. However, she looked inexperienced yet in expressing the restricted sadness of a mother who should part with her baby for good. In contrast, the performance of Lee Sung-Jae as the husband who looks after such a wife warmly is well established.

Did the director have a premonition that poet Suh Chong-Ju, better known by his pen name Midang, would die on a snowy day? It is significant that the deceased poet¡¯s poem ¡°In the Falling Snow¡± appears as a dramatic device to comfort motherhood in this movie again as it was quoted in ¡°Youth,¡± directed by Kwak Ji-Kyun, like a spell to calm down the passion of youth.

The movie will make its screen premier Jan. 20, restricted to viewers age 15 and older.