From the beginning, filmmaker Jin Mo-young makes it clear that this will be a Painful Yet Beautiful Movie. He begins with a wide shot of—spoiler alert!—the wife, 89-year-old Kang Gye-yeol, softly wailing in front of the grave of her husband, 98-year-old Jo Byeong-man, in the dead of winter, set to very sad piano music. The rest of the movie is a flashback, so we get to see moments of their blissful happiness while knowing that the dark cloud of death is looming just 90 minutes away. The couple spends their days cooking rice, gathering firewood, picking flowers, and feeding their dogs. They use the bathroom. They bathe. They take afternoon naps. They hold hands, dance, sing, and tease each other. They are reduced to caricatures of cute old people.

Read the full review by Kathleen Richards