Treeless Mountain

Treeless Mountain is a 2008 film written and directed by So Yong Kim. It is the story of two young sisters: Jin and Bin, who find they must rely on their relationship with each other if they wish to survive the harsh veracity of their mother’s absence.

The narrative is very contained as is the cinematography. The majority of shots in the film are tight close-ups on the world that the children inhabit. There are also many brief moments when the camera noticeably focuses on a seemingly mundane object in the foreground while the subject blends into the back. As the audience, we get most of our expository information from overheard conversations and an understanding of the adult world which these children do not (and should not) possess. In this way, Treeless Mountain succeeds in telling a story from a child’s point of view without relying on cheap devices such as nostalgia.

While we watch the children living with their obviously ineffectual (and possibly alcoholic) aunt, it becomes clear to us, as an audience, that their mother will likely not be coming back for a long time. Before she leaves, she gives her daughters a plastic piggy bank and explains to them that each time they behave, their aunt will give them a coin for their bank; when the bank is full, she will be back. This leads the girls to invent numerous ploys to fill up the bank as quickly as possible.

The girls begin to catch grasshoppers which they spear on skewers and cook over a small flame to sell to older boys as they leave school. The scene is very effective as we watch Jin, the older sister, overcome her initial aversion to the grasshoppers so that she can earn coins in the hopes of hastening her mother’s return. Eventually they realize that if they get change for large coins, they will fill the bank in no time but this only leads to a heartbreaking sequence in which we watch the girls slowly lose their enthusiasm as bus after bus empties to reveal that it does not contain their mother.

The film ends on a positive, though not perfect note and the viewer is left wondering what will become of the girls as they grow older. How much of an impact will these few weeks(?) have on the rest of their lives? I left the film feeling as though I understood the impact of the events more than the two main characters did and this is such an important choice for the director to have made because it allows the honest authenticity of the children in the film to remain.

Treeless Mountain is an impressively well crafted film which is definitely worth your time. The child performances are some of the most natural and realistic I have ever seen. The cinematography is consistently engaging and often quite beautiful. The story, while sad, is not looking to create a visceral emotional reaction; it is also not looking to downplay the seriousness of these circumstances which undoubtedly happen every day. While the girls are sad, they are just children and do not understand the permanence of the situation; they have no choice but to accept the world as it is presented to them.

It is now available on Netflix Watch Instantly.