THE STORY – A deep dive into the culture of the Haenyeo, the South Korean fisherwomen who have been harvesting seafood for their communities for centuries.
THE CAST – N/A
THE TEAM – Sue Kim (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 87 Minutes
On Jeju Island off the southern coast of Korea, many women make their living as haenyeo, diving in the ocean without the aid of oxygen tanks to harvest seafood like sea urchins and abalone. Inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016, the haenyeo and the amount of wildlife where they typically dive are slowly dying. Diving up to 10 meters deep for up to two minutes at a time for 7-9 hours a day is difficult, dangerous work, and young people have been looking elsewhere for work in the modern world. Sue Kim’s documentary “The Last of the Sea Women” memorializes the tenacity of these women, following six haenyeo between the ages of 60 and 90 who have been doing this for over 50 years, as well as two young women in their 30s who have taken up the mantle for the next generation. As they commiserate about the dwindling size of their harvests and reminisce about their younger days, the women must come together for their biggest challenge yet: Demonstrating against the decision to release radioactive groundwater from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant into the ocean, which, despite being touted as safe could have a lasting effect on not just the marine life, but the women who make their living swimming in these waters as well.
This fight to protect our environment gives an unexpected additional layer of emotional resonance to a film that already tugs on the heartstrings pretty hard. These women have incredible stories, and watching them do such difficult work at such advanced ages is inspiring. Their dedication to preserving their way of life shines through the seemingly perpetually overcast skies over the island, which seem to have inspired the film’s slate-grey coloring. This runs counter to most recent documentaries featuring underwater exploration, which emphasize the wonder of the world on the ocean floor. While the color palette makes the film look somewhat sad, it also feels strangely appropriate, given that the ocean is, by all of these women’s accounts, dying. The film even smartly utilizes archival footage to emphasize how much more colorful and plentiful the sea life was in years past compared to the present day. The women’s stories always back up this stark visual contrast, talking about how much they were able to haul out of the water (one woman initially became a haenyeo in the hopes of simply bringing home food for her family) and how the communal aspects of the work lifted them up even though their suntanned skin marked them as blue-collar laborers when attending high school reunions.
That community spirit has become even more pronounced as the numbers of haenyeo have diminished over the years – of the roughly 200,000 island residents, there are only 4,000 haenyeo in 2023 compared to over 30,000 in the 1960s. Efforts to start a training school have been mixed; only five percent of the 840 students who attended have joined the profession. One of the film’s most heartwarming moments comes when the older haenyeo meets the thirty-something haenyeo social media stars from neighboring Geoje Island – the veterans are so amazed and so appreciative of the younger women’s love for the craft that all are brought to tears, with the one unmarried younger haenyeo receiving multiple, multiple matchmaking offers with various sons and grandsons. Seeing a 90-year-old haenyeo attend the demonstration against the Fukushima Plant is supremely inspiring, as is watching 72-year-old Soon Deok speak before the UN’s Human Rights Council, giving a short, passionate plea in as well-spoken English as she can muster to save our oceans and her people’s way of life.
Despite all that inspiration, the release of the Fukushima groundwater goes ahead in August 2023. While this wasn’t the outcome anyone wanted, Kim smartly juxtaposes it with a local festival celebrating the haenyeo, complete with traditional rituals performed by a village shaman to protect them as well as the ocean waters. The haenyeo exist in a strange space, a profession rooted in the rich tradition that nonetheless gave these women a way out of the traditional lives of Korean women, who would typically stay at home if not working in traditionally feminine jobs. Being a haenyeo is not easy, but all the women insist not only that they enjoy it (some even say they are at their healthiest when in the ocean) but that men simply cannot do it as well as women; the male director of the haenyeo training school even happily admits that he can’t keep up with the 70-80-year-old women when diving with them. As adorable as these women are – you can’t help but want to hug each and every one of them by the film’s finale – their indomitable strength turns out to be the film’s driving force. Even though the future of both haenyeo culture and Earth’s oceans looks bleak at the film’s end, Kim makes “The Last of the Sea Women” a perfect mixture of elegy and epic, mourning the dwindling numbers while burnishing the legacy of the culture at the same time. The haenyeo are so much more than fisherwomen – they are pioneers of working women, advocates for our planet, and even trendsetters. Now that they’re also movie stars, hopefully, their efforts to protect our oceans will have even more impact.
