Moonlit Winter

Movies are a curious thing. They’re artificial on every level. And we know that. Even if they’re about real events, it’s all actors and sound stages. Yet despite their artificiality, film can be such a reminder and connection to real humanity. Moonlit Winter is one such film. For all that it is a fictional story, the emotion and humanity is real.

The slow, subtle Moonlit Winter starts with the sending of a letter. The recipient of this letter is meant to be Yoon-hee. Instead, Yonn-hee’s teenage daughter, Sae-bom reads the letter. The letter in question reveals her mother’s secret past to Sae-bom. Yoon-hee and her close friend Jun were actually terribly in love when they were young. But they’ve been separated for decades now. Sae-bom decides to try and bring her mother some closure and joy. So, mother and daughter journey to the village of Otaru where Jun’s aunt still lives.

Like much in the film, Moonlit Winter’s take of female-female love is subtle. There’s not really any scenes of physical affection beyond a hug. Instead, there’s dialogue and writing that speak of longing and understanding. This is a relationship crafted through words rather than physicality. Given the fact that so many WLW films throw in a needless sex scene, this is a nice change of pace. There’s poetry in the words Jun and Yoon-hee speak to and about each other. And it’s a kind of poetry you wouldn’t find in a film about young love. The longing, the romance, the restraint is something that comes with age. Moonlit Winter casts a beautiful light on a relationship between somewhat older people. There’s a depth to this connection forged by decades of life.

However, the focus of the film is not entirely romance. The duo that shares the most screen time is actually Yoon-hee and her daugher, Sae-bom. Between this story and the romance, Moonlit Winter shows two beautiful depictions of love and connection. Yoon-hee and Sae-bom’s dynamic is loving but not without complication. On the cusp of adulthood, Sae-bom and Yoon-hee are still navigating how much say Yoon-hee has over Sae-bom’s choices. But the journey they take is not a one-way street of understanding. Yoon-hee learns to respect Sae-bom’s choices and autonomy. But Sae-bom also learns about Yoon-hee. She starts to see Yoon-hee as more than just her mother, but a person with her own desires and history. A real friendship forms between this mother and daughter once they come to respect each other as autonomous adults.

Moonlit Winter is not a flashy film. It’s slow and subtle. But there’s a quiet poetry to the film. The screenplay has both smart observations and beautiful turns of phrase. With such a solid, human story as its backbone, Moonlit Winter stands out as a film that knows how to do more with less.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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