About Daughter (2024) Movie Review

『A Story of Generational Conflict, Love, and Redefining Family Beyond Prejudice』

🎥 Film Overview

🎬 Title: About Daughter (딸에 대하여)(2024)
🌍 Country: 🇰🇷 South Korea
🎞️ Genre: Drama / Family / Social Issues
🗓️ Release: 2024
📢 Director/Writer: Lee Mirang
📖 Based on: The novel of the same name by Kim Hye-jin

👩‍💼 Cast: Oh Min-ae (Mother), Lim Se-mi (Green), Ha Yoon-kyung (Rain), Heo Jin (Lee Jae-hee)

🧩 Story and Emotional Deep Dive

💔 Two “Blind Spots” Intersected by a Lens: Mother and Daughter

The film “About Daughter” delicately interweaves two major blind spots of Korean society — through the uneasy coexistence of a care worker mother and her non-tenured lecturer daughter.

• The Blind Spot of Care Labor (Isolation in Old Age): The mother’s workplace, a nursing home, introduces us to Jae-hee, an elderly woman with dementia abandoned by her family.

• The Blind Spot of Existence (Sexual Minorities): To the mother, her daughter Green’s life with her same-sex partner Rain feels incompatible with the world she knows.

By juxtaposing the mother’s devoted care for Jae-hee with her inner struggle to accept her daughter’s life, the film amplifies her outcry — “How can you say that’s someone else’s problem?” — as a plea for solidarity among those living in the margins of survival.

✨ The Violence of “Normalcy” and a Mother’s Agony

The mother’s perspective shapes the central dilemma of the story. Representing a generation that has worked tirelessly to offer their children a “stable and normal” life, she clings to the framework of normalcy — a decent job, a heterosexual partner, and the security of fitting in.

To her, the daughter’s defiance — living as a sexual minority and standing up against unjust dismissal as a non-regular lecturer — appears reckless and unsafe. In a heated argument, when the daughter asks, “Don’t you think it’s people like you who keep us from living freely?”, the mother is left speechless. This moment starkly exposes how the older generation’s insistence on “normal family values” becomes a quiet form of violence against queer lives.

⚔️ Care, Resistance, and the Possibility of Change

The film expands the meanings of both “care” and “struggle” through the intertwined lives of mother and daughter.

• The Mother’s Care: Despite her coworkers’ objections, she devotes herself to Jae-hee and even brings her home — an act of self-reflective solidarity through which she sees both her own aging and her daughter’s uncertain future in the same mirror.

• The Daughter’s Resistance: Risking her livelihood, she fights for a fellow lecturer unfairly dismissed for being queer — a courageous act to defend the rights of minorities.

Their warrior-like perseverance and the quiet moment when Rain cooks for the mother and Jae-hee evoke a tender image of a small community — a hopeful reminder that even without blood ties or perfect understanding, people can still love and care for one another.

👩‍👧‍👦 Subtle Cinematic Language and Unyielding Performances

Director Lee Mirang retains the novel’s powerful social consciousness but replaces the introspective, first-person literary tone with nuanced visual storytelling. Through restrained music, expressive mise-en-scène, and meaningful silence, she offers a cinematic experience that is both observational and deeply empathetic.

Oh Min-ae’s performance is remarkable — portraying the mother’s frustration, compassion, and her rediscovery of self with precision. Her final scene, where she regains her own name through a humble résumé, resonates profoundly. Meanwhile, Lim Se-mi and Ha Yoon-kyung embody the resilient tenderness of two young women striving to protect each other in a precarious world.

💞 Love and Respect Beyond Prejudice

“About Daughter” transcends the boundaries of a mere queer or mother–daughter conflict film. It captures the intertwined realities of care and hatred, generation and class in contemporary Korea, urging us to confront the social blind spots we often ignore. Even without full understanding, it gently tilts our perspective, reminding us of humanity’s enduring will to face each other with kindness and respect.

🎯 Personal Rating (Based on Preference)

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★★★