How to Make Kimchi According to My Kun-Umma

This film was sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada and is included in a DVD collection entitled "The Best of Slant: Volume One"--short films by Asian-Americans (both Canadian and from the US). Of all the films in the collection, this is probably my favorite--even though its style and film work are incredibly simple. It is, overall, very effective.

The short shows a Korean woman making kimchi. While I have had kimchi many times and never particularly liked it, I now have a MUCH greater appreciation for the dish as it takes so incredibly long to make--unless, of course, you buy it in the market in a jar. But, Kun-Umma does NOT buy it from the store. This middle-aged woman has always made it herself and prefers to do this--even though I marvel at how much work this woman has to do whenever she makes the stuff. So why does she do it? Well, if you look at how strongly she holds on to her cultural heritage (volunteering to work with second generation Korean kids as well as her Korean club), it all makes sense.

Now even though the film would seem like nothing more than a how-to film on making kimchi, there is a lot more to it. Not only is it nice to see how this woman and her family hold on to their culture, but I loved the universality of the woman. Like mothers from ALL cultures, her over-interest in her son meeting a nice girl and getting married as well as getting a good job all come out during the course of the film. There is also a nice gentleness and sense of humor about the lady--such that you feel almost like you are an invited guest into her world. Nicely done and insightful.

There is a lot of content in this movie and it slips it into the frame indirectly and with impressive ease. While the main metaphor of fermenting kimchi drives the overarching theme of assimilation and retaining ethnicity in a North American society, the ease in which the informative cooking instruction turns into attitudes about family and culture is remarkable.

It feels as if the film maker could have kept shooting and even more detail would have jumped out. This feeling of suspense in a simple sub-urban setting really delivers the taste of kimchi and a rare glimpse of Korean life.