Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2009 - ‘Old Partner’

First-time director Lee Chung-Ryoul manages to have it both ways with the documentary Old Partner: he has lovingly photographed the South Korean countryside, gathering all the textures and colors of the seasons while telling a rich, heartbreaking narrative of an aging farmer and his ox during their final years together.

Mr. Lee is 79 and ailing, yet he continues to toil long, difficult days on his farm in a South Korean valley. With a bad leg, headaches and a general disdain for modern technology, feed and pesticides, he works the land in a seemingly endless cycle with only the help of his long-suffering wife and a 40-year-old ox, whose health is no better than his own. Oxen tend to live 15 years, the locals say, but Mr. Lee's ox slowly trudges along, hauling firewood, plowing crops and carting Mr.Lee back and forth between their home and the fields.

Whether a simple shot of two shoes at the edge of a field, an ox slowly walking past a picket line in the city or the elegance of rainfall and snow against hills and mist-covered mountains, Old Partner is stocked with a steady supply of beautiful images. Embracing its themes of family, friendship, old age and the inevitable end to all cycles, the film is thoughtful and deeply affecting.

Information from the festival's website