SPOILERS Included!!

After having so many people discuss Miss Granny in the comments of our first lecture, I decided to review it for my film review.  I really enjoyed this film and found it to be funny, and real in its discussion of the issues that women face as they age.  The beginning of the movie where the narrator relates women of different ages to different balls within sports games really resonated with me.  I think that the commentary that as women age they begin to lose their value, and are only really valued for their youth and appearance was so relevant in today’s culture.  Mal-Sun is an old woman who is trying to do the best she can for her family, and when her daughter-in-law becomes sick, the family blames her for putting stress on her.  Mal-Sun laments walks past a photo studio and decides to have her photo taken, and she discusses with the photographer how she never had the chance to get all dolled up as a young girl, and the photographer tells her he will ‘take fifty years off of her’.  When Mal-Sun leaves the photo studio she finds that she has returned to her 20 year old self.  She stays with some of her family as they do not recognize her as a young person, and is incorporated into her grandson’s band.  Mal-Sun and her grandson audition with his band and are chosen to sing with a big act.  Her friend discovers Mal-Sun's secret and together they learn that if she loses blood, she will become old again.  The day of the big concert, her grandson is hit by a bus on the way to the concert, and Mal-Sun convinces the band to sing her grandson’s song for him before going to visit him in the hospital.  When she gets to the hospital, her friend explains to her that she must donate blood to save her grandson, but Mal-Sun knows that if she donates blood, she will become old again.  She decides to give blood to save her grandson, and gives up her newfound youth, but in doing so she also realizes that her family truly values her for who she is and everything she had done in her life for them. I think this movie would be really excellent to discuss in class about making sure that others in our lives feel valued and that we communicate with others how we feel.  Towards the end of the movie, Mal-Sun’s son talks to her and pleads with her to leave and go live a new life that would be better than her life was previously, and Mal-Sun explains to him that she loved her life and would never give it up for another chance.  In the end, Mal-Sun becomes old again, and her grandson survives and goes on to continue playing in his band, and Mal-Sun has an improved relationship with her family.