This film introduces the daily lives of 84-year-old Carmen and 97-year-old Emeterio, from the moment the couple gets out of bed. They move through the course of sofa, dining table and verandah, before making a brief trip to the hospital. Apart from simple close-ups of the elderly woman’s wrinkled hands, the elderly man’s hollow cheeks and the couple’s hands held together, nothing special really happens. So it seems the film focuses on what goes on instead of what particularly happens. Time may be deeply engraved in the meaning of growing old, but without the vitality that existed up to a certain point, and with an aging body that will only weaken in time, what can possibly be left to a person facing old age? The answer this film suggests is ‘waiting’, but not just waiting for family members who visit every year. There is a profound introspection of existence itself that the film urges us to see. The pacing of the camera blends naturally into the elderly couple’s daily routines, and the detailed drama it captures along with the well-thought-out compositions let us guess how intimate the relationship between the director and her subjects was. As it turns out, the director is the granddaughter of the elderly couple, yet she manages to maintain a certain distance and the eye of an observer. And perhaps because of this approach, the film seems to objectify the subject of growing old rather than become a subjective self-examination of it. (LEE Seung-min)