Having lived a hard life and reached her seventies, Oh Mal-soon is a woman who doesn’t take any crap from anyone. She is never far from a confrontation, whether it be a good-natured spat with her colleague Mr. Park or a jealous row with her rival Okja, or a volley of complaints fired at her daughter-in-law. But one day she receives a painful blow which catches her off guard. Her son and the rest of his family would like her to move to a nursing home. Stunned and despondent, she walks out of the house and starts aimlessly wandering the streets.
It’s then that she comes across a curiously old-fashioned looking photo studio known as “Youth Photo.” Charmed by the look of the place, she decides to treat herself to a portrait. The friendly proprietor, who carries a knowing glint in his eye, takes her picture. It’s only later, after she’s left the studio and is riding the bus, that she sees her reflection in the window and realizes that something fundamental has changed.
Mal-soon is now in the body of a 20-year-old. Of course, none of her family or acquaintances can recognize her in her new guise. She renames herself “Audrey,” after Audrey Hepburn, and awkwardly begins to take on a new identity. Physically, she has returned to her youth, but her mind is the same. Most notably, she still acts and speaks like the 70-year-old woman who stirs up trouble wherever she goes.
Miss Granny was Korean cinema’s first smash hit of 2014, a film that left audiences roaring with laughter. Much of the credit for the film’s success can be assigned to the talented young actress Shim Eun-gyeong, who through her bodily movements and her voice perfectly expressed the feisty attitude and particular dialect of an elderly Korean woman who grew up in the countryside. In this case, the unexpected clash between Shim’s pretty young face and the manner of her speech proved to be a joke that never got old. Having already proved herself once as the lead of the smash hit Sunny, Shim ranks without doubt as one of the leading lights of the new generation of Korean actresses.
Viewers might be surprised to learn that Miss Granny was directed by the same person who made the deeply upsetting and moving film Silenced (2011), based on a shocking real-life incidence of child abuse at a school for the deaf. It’s quite a shift in mood for director Hwang Dong-hyuk, but perhaps it makes sense that after tackling such a heavy and disturbing topic, he might want to choose something light and insubstantial for his next work. At any rate, both films were massive hits: Silenced took 4.7 million admissions at the Korean box office, while Miss Granny ended up with 8.7 million admissions.
Although that latter number far exceeded anyone’s expectations, Miss Granny can be said to have earned its success. It is effectively packaged, slickly constructed, and features a good cast of supporting characters. One should note, however, that it is a devilishly hard film to translate. Because of South Korea’s rapid development, there is a large linguistic and cultural gap between people of Mal-soon’s age and younger generations. It is the image of an elderly woman’s dialect coming out of the mouth of Shim Eun-gyeong that provides for this film’s greatest spectacle. Non-Korean audiences will still get the joke, and thoroughly enjoy this film. But some small part of its charm may remain elusive.
Darcy Paquet