Poetry (Korean: 시; Hanja: 詩; RR: Si) is a 2010 South Korean-French drama film written and directed by Lee Chang-dong.

[2] It tells the story of a suburban woman in her 60s who begins to develop an interest in poetry while struggling with Alzheimer's disease and her irresponsible grandson.

Yang Mi-ja (Yoon Jeong-hee), a 66-year-old grandmother, consults a doctor at a hospital who is concerned about her forgetfulness, and referring her to a specialist.

Though Mi-ja lives on government welfare, she has a small job taking care of a well-to-do elderly man who has had a stroke.

She is told that the group of boys have repeatedly raped a girl, Agnes, over the past six months, before she jumped off a bridge into a river and drowned.

To avert a full police investigation, the parents of the boys offer to pay a settlement of 30 million won to the widowed mother, a poor farmer.

Another amateur poet explains to Mi-ja that the man is a policeman with a good heart, and was recently reassigned from Seoul after exposing corruption within its police force.

Mi-ja temporarily quits her job caring for the elderly stroke victim after he makes a desperate sexual advance toward her.

When she returns home, she takes out from her purse the picture of Agnes that she took from the memorial service, and places it on the table for her grandson to see the next morning.

Though annoyed that she still hasn't contributed her sum, the fathers are overjoyed that Agnes' mother has agreed to settle, despite Mi-ja's failure to previously ask her to.

Once the settlement has been paid to Agnes' mother, Mi-ja phones her daughter to come home, and insists that Jong-wook shower and cut his nails.

The idea for the film had its origin in a real-life case where a small town schoolgirl had been raped by a gang of teenage boys.

When director Lee Chang-dong heard about the incident, it made an impact on him, although he hadn't been interested in basing a film on the actual events.

The program was edited entirely from relaxing shots of nature, "a peaceful river, birds flying, fishermen on the sea – with soft new-age music in the background," and a vision for a possible feature film started to form.

[6] Production was led by Pine House Film, founded in 2005 by the director, with co-production support from UniKorea Culture & Art Investment.

[8] Lee was initially worried that Yoon's long experience might have bound her to an outdated acting style, but was very pleased with her attitude, saying, "She performed her scenes with a willingness to discuss and this is difficult to find even in younger actors.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Poetry is an absorbing, poignant drama because it offers no easy answers to its complex central conflict.

[17] "Given the abundant potential for missteps into sappiness with this sort of premise," Justin Chang wrote in Variety, "what's notable here is the lack of sentimentality in Lee's approach.

Chang continued by noting how Lee's background as a novelist sometimes shows through, and that "[t]here are longueurs here... that could be trimmed, though overall this absorbing film feels considerably shorter than its 139 minutes.

[25] The jury of the 31st Blue Dragon Film Awards decided to exclude Poetry from the selection, since Lee had announced that he would boycott the ceremony.

[30] It also received the Le Regard d'Or ("Golden Gaze") Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival.