Program Note
A father, suspected of stealing gold from the Japanese army, seeks help from the American military, leaving his family at home. The village chief threatens the family in pursuit of the gold, food becomes scarce, and the mother’s illness worsens. Searching for food, Tala and her brother encounter a beautiful fairy in the forbidden forest, and receive medicine to cure her mother. In My Mother’s Skin, Kenneth Dagatan’s second film, following Ma (2018), evokes memories of Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) in its story of a girl undergoing a fairy’s “test” to protect her family during wartime. However, this film is more horror than fantasy, we have no choice but to witness Tala enduring tragedy as after believing in the fairy’s benevolence. Because of the greed of adults, and the deception of fairy exploiting Tala’s desperation, as the guilty one merely being innocent, she must suffer alone, and the burden of guilt is overwhelming. (KIM Sukyun)