In this later work, director Han Okhi returns to her origins as a scholar of Korean poetry to transform the verse of Han Yong-un (1879â1944)âpopularly known as Manhaeâinto a collage of stunning âcinepoems.â Hanâs short film features fifteen poems from the eponymous The Silence of Love, the only collection of poetry left to us by the iconic Buddhist, poet, and revolutionary. Since the collectionâs publication in 1926, the subject, object, or identity of its central love has remained widely debated. As scholar and translator Francisca Cho discusses, these fluctuations in meaningâa lover? Manhaeâs beloved homeland enduring Japanese colonial rule? Buddhist enlightenment?âresound in the malleability of the titular nim, a word that evokes love, lover, beloved, or, as Manhae proposes in the preface to his work, âeverything yearned for.â Director Han Okhi takes on the formidable challenge of visualizing the manifold meanings of Manhaeâs poetry through her signature experimental style.
