The Last of the Sea Women Review: Urgent & Profound

The Last of the Sea Women opens the audience’s eyes to a reality that many of us may not have been familiar with.

By the end of it, the latter becomes as much of a protagonist as the community of haenyeos, as the audience cannot help but deeply care for both.

The Last of the Sea Women begins on Jeju Island in South Korea. Surrounded by a beautiful ocean, the place initially looks like heaven on earth, but this documentary invites us to take another look at the nature that surrounds it and explore the complexities of its ocean. That is exactly what the heanyeo, the protagonists of the film, do when they dive deep to collect seafood for their communities on the island. As the movie goes on, the audience learns more and more about this community of women and the threats they are under, including the decline in new members and significant environmental changes.

If, like me, you had never heard of haenyeos before, this is the perfect chance to learn more about a beautiful community that is tragically in decline. From its very first frame, The Last of the Sea Women invites us to explore what life for these women looks like on a daily basis.  As the audience witnesses their hard work while they dive deep into the ocean and their rituals together – the women are often shown praying or eating together within a community that extends far beyond the water – we start to learn more about what being a haenyeos means both in terms of their work and the history of this group of people.

The historical and technical information is delivered through an interview format, which also allows us to get to know some of the haenyeos on a personal level as they share their stories. Each of them is drawn to the profession for their own unique reason, but the one element they all have in common is their love for this job and their community. The film is especially successful because it mixes the standard format of talking heads with other techniques that are not necessarily traditionally associated with documentary filmmaking. What makes The Last of the Sea Women particularly stand out to me is its cinematography (Iris Ng,Eunsoo Cho, and Justin Turkowski): its beautiful shots reflect the care and attention that was taken in portraying not only the protagonists of this film but also the environment that surrounds them.

While the first half of The Last of the Sea Women is a thoughtful exploration of the women’s work, the urgency of this documentary is really felt in its second part. In this sense, the movie is at its best when it deals with pressing and timely issues that affect the women’s livelihood.I wish it had spent more time on this second narrative to truly be understood by the audience. I especially loved the final act of the film because it shows how the haenyeos are finally given a voice in matters that concern them personally, just like how this documentary also gives them a chance to be heard for its hour-and-a-half runtime.

Overall, The Last of the Sea Women is a touching documentary about a community that may very well soon be gone. And yet, its last scenes remain hopeful, allowing us to imagine a future in which more women not only want to become haenyeos but also actually can, if the urgent concerns regarding the water they dive in are finally addressed and taken seriously. More than anything, this documentary represents the possibility for the haenyeos to be recognised for their work that often goes unnoticed and not even mentioned when talking about the climate crisis or similar issues that involve them firsthand.

The Last of the Sea Women will be available to stream on Apple TV+ from October 11, 2024.