A filmmaker daughter studying in a foreign country belatedly learns of her mother’s cancer. Her mother has hidden it from her, lest she worry, but the daughter feels upset. The mother has been a doctor for thirty years, and she has thought as much about death as about living well. As the hospital has been her playground, the daughter is familiar with the scene of death, but the thought of losing her mother scares her. Before we know it, the film that seemed like a personal essay about a mother’s illness and the daughter’s care soon turns its gaze to the more fundamental question about death through patients at the crossroads of life and death, their guardians who have to say goodbye, the medical staff’s high-intensity labor, the burden and threat they must bear. The film asks the tough question: “How should we face death?” It then answers the question by affirming life once again. (JEONG Jihye)