The Last of the Sea Women (2024)

Directed by

Sue Kim

Genre

documentary

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 26 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

The film follows older women on Jeju island in South Korea who free-dive for seafood to support themselves. It shows how they face a new threat from Japan's plan to release irradiated water from Fukushima into the ocean. The documentary also introduces a younger group of divers on another island who keep the tradition alive.

observationalcontemplativeintimateresilientdocilegroundedwarmslow-paced

What happens

The Last of the Sea Women is an American documentary film, directed by Sue Kim and released in 2024. The film profiles the haenyeo, a declining community of women in Jeju, South Korea, who support themselves by free-diving in the ocean to collect seafood. Much of the film concentrates on the community of haenyeo, all of them over 60, on Jeju, but later we learn that on Geoje island, 150 miles away, there are some younger haenyeo, in their 20s and 30s, who continue the tradition and have popular social media profiles. The lives of the haenyeo are seen in a more political and international context when Japan announces a plan to release irradiated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, which might threaten the health or the livelihood of the women. The film premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named the winner of the NETPAC Prize. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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