Character Relationship Map: Poetry

Characters

• Yang Mi-ja (played by Yoon Jeong-hee) — protagonist

  A 66-year-old grandmother on welfare diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's. She cares for a stroke patient and her misbehaving grandson, enrolls in a poetry class to find beauty amid tragedy, and bec...

• Jong-wook (played by David Lee) — protagonist

  A 16-year-old grandson of Mi-ja who frequently socializes with five other schoolboys. He is secretly involved in the repeated rape of a classmate named Agnes, which leads to her suicide. He ignores Mi...

• Poet (played by Kim Yong-taek) — supporting

  An amateur poet and police officer who attends weekly poetry readings. He recites beautiful poetry but follows it with crude sexual jokes that initially offend Mi-ja. He later comforts Mi-ja when she...

• Wook's Friend (played by Nam Joong-gyu) — minor
• Wook's Friend (played by Park Hyun-woo) — minor

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Poet → Jong-wook (Professional Arresting Officer) — Poet's police role directly leads to Jong-wook's arrest.

  Poet appears with his police partner at Mi-ja's home and takes Jong-wook away.

• Yang Mi-ja → Jong-wook (Family Grandmother) — Mi-ja is Jong-wook's grandmother and primary caregiver at home.

  Yang Mi-ja lives with and cares for her 16-year-old grandson, Jong-wook, while his mother lives in Busan.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Poet → Yang Mi-ja (Social Poetry Companion) — Poet becomes a quiet source of human companionship for Mi-ja.

  Poet and Mi-ja attend the same weekly poetry readings, and he remains beside her when she cries outside after one reading.

• Wook's Friend → Jong-wook (friend)
• Wook's Friend → Jong-wook (friend)

Story Analysis

An elderly grandmother seeks beauty through poetry while confronting memory loss, moral complicity, and the consequences of her grandson's crime.

Plot Progression

1. A Body Beneath Beauty — Mi-ja encounters illness, bereavement, and the first signs of a hidden tragedy. She enters a poetry class while caring for Jong-wook and searching for beauty in ordinary things.
2. The Secret Settlement — The boys' fathers reveal the sexual violence and attempt to contain its consequences through money. Mi-ja becomes responsible for securing a settlement she cannot afford while Jong-wook refuses to eng...
3. Beauty Under Pressure — Mi-ja's diagnosis and humiliating experiences expose her increasing isolation. Poetry, the river, and the settlement become entangled with her struggle to understand responsibility.
4. The Failed Appeal — Mi-ja is pressured to approach the dead girl's mother but loses track of the purpose of the visit while speaking about nature. Her memory failure and grief become impossible to separate.
5. A Song Without Mi-ja — Mi-ja obtains the settlement money, prepares Jong-wook, and silently allows his arrest. Her poem survives her disappearance, merging her voice with Agnes's in an ambiguous ending.