Seperated by bars.
A female prison guard feels bad for one of the inmates when the inmate’s mother dies, and she can’t attend the funeral. The prison guard then meets the teenage daughter of the inmate, and she grows closer to the girl, trying to connect with her emotionally since she feels sorry for the innocent daughter, who is staying at a motel where a friend of her mother lets her stay. The prison guard hopes that maybe the daughter can also meet her mother, whom she hasn’t seen for many years.
The reason I wanted to watch this movie was because of Song Ji-hyo, who has the leading role. In this movie, she plays a cold and strict prison guard whom some of her colleagues dislike because she is so strict with the inmates. She doesn’t smile much, I tell ya! But then she meets the inmate’s teenage daughter, and their relationship starts to melt some of the ice in the prison guard’s heart. How much will melt away by the time the end credits roll?
This is a small movie with a limited scope, and to be honest, I didn’t find it that good or interesting. The problem is that the characters feel underdeveloped, and they don’t say much. What happened to the prison guard? Why is she so cold? Why is she so sad? Why is she lonely? I had so many questions about the protagonist that the movie never answered.
I also wondered what the inmates had done to end up in prison. It’s not only the teenage girl’s mother who is locked up, but there are several other characters, and we never get to know them or what they have done.
There are also some scenes at the daughter’s school, but nothing interesting happens there. The daughter lives inside a tiny bubble. You feel sorry for her, of course, since she doesn’t have a normal, functioning mother to take care of her, but she’s a good girl for the most part, not causing any problems, so she isn’t as interesting or complicated as you might expect. This is a movie that feels lazy in how the characters are written.
The movie is also slow, with very little dialogue, and it feels repetitive without really going anywhere, except for the teenage daughter gradually melting the prison guard’s icy heart. But at least Song Ji-hyo is really good in the role, and there is something captivating about her eyes. She can tell us so much about what’s going on inside her character just by using them.