While organizing my belongings after moving to Jeonju for a job in 2021, I find an account book from a drawer of a mother-of-pearl dresser that my mother wrote in every day without fail for about 50 years.

The account book contains the entire money transaction history of our family from 1969 to 2017. Curious, I open it up to the year I was born, 1972, and find a note written by my mother on a sick day saying, “My heart is troubled over nothing. I feel resentful for being born a woman.” 

This opened up my curiosity about my mother’s life and the memories of her that I did not remember.

This film is composed of records from the account book, interviews with my mother, daily life, memory recollections, and other relevant footage.

The records in the account book correspond to modern Korean history, which underwent rapid changes. In 2017, records in the account book, which were like records of survival, stopped. Do I know everything about the life of my mother during the turbulent times from when she was a young girl to now a grandmother? Amidst a history of military dictatorship and male-dominated industrialization, would our mothers affirm and be satisfied with their past lives?

There is only a short time for my mother to remember. I want to slow down my mother’s fading memories through the time provided my cinema. In addition, I want to record my time as a son with my mother.