‘The Last Of The Sea Women’ Review – The Last Mermaids Of The Ocean

Documentaries serve various purposes. Some are understandable, and others are eye-opening. Some are portals into another world or simply a dive into the mind and life of someone with a legacy. 

In The Last of the Sea Women, director Sue Kim takes viewers on a journey inside a soon-to-be dying trade; haenyeos, or female divers in the South Korean province of Jeju, who spend their lives swimming for great depths down the sea to harvest the goods deep in the ocean from mollusks, sea urchin, octopus and more. The ocean’s generosity opened its arms to the women of the island, and their strictly female-only job has led them to evolve as a semi-matriarchy, being the breadwinners of their families, providing food for the community.

Kim explores an uncharted territory of these women. They seem out of this world, invincible and Amazonian, when, in fact, most of them recount simple tales of how their lives have been outside the ocean. Her camera captures not only the sun-stricken skins and sharp features but also the smiles and the folk songs the women share before the dive. The cameras roll and the smiles turn into flexible, eel-like bodies dashing into the ocean, swimming down to impossible depths, balancing their journeys so as not to drift away, consumed with greed for the sea goodies so that they can come back up alive. Easier said than done but Kim captures their smooth gliding movements into the unknown with careful precision, capturing every movement and jerk. 

Haenyeos are sustenance providers and day-to-day workers, operating on a from-harvest-to-mouth strategy. They depend on their health and their strength to feed their communities and their families, a harsh life that in a different context would be as far from women as possible, but in the magical province of Jeju, this life of hard work is rewarding. However, like every dying art, the haenyeos’ existence is threatened by multiple factors. Pollution, the danger of the craft, and the lack of interest of the young generations in the tradition are among some of the major issues raised by the veteran divers.

These women tell inspiring stories of their financial independence. Men seem like an afterthought, a far-off concept in their ocean-drenched world. They are out there for themselves and the community, but things like marriage and depending on a man are like myths to them. Their main passion and concern is their job which they all carry around like a sacred ritual, a part of their culture. It is a source of pride and joy for them even if it drains their health and takes chunks of their lives, not only free diving and hunting for the food of the sea but also the later work of sorting it out and preparing it for sale.

The director captures the scenes underwater through a breathtaking lens. It becomes an undersea adventure for the viewer, a portal to the mystery of the world hiding in the belly of the ocean. The female divers become gatekeepers of a world both fascinating and dangerous, especially when the women discuss the perils of their craft with the director, and how a greedy harvest could end up in someone losing their lives. The women speak fondly of the ocean. They seem amphibian-like, submerged for half their lives in water, living underneath it, and then resurfacing, their identity crisis palpable and heartbreaking to observe. Kim doesn’t hold back; she takes viewers on a voyeuristic journey of wandering under the sea with the women, like a tale of an aquatic kingdom reserved only for female divers, the secrets of the ocean only revealing themselves to the niche.

What the film could have benefited from is a brutal editor; there are too many scenes, and omitting an extra twenty minutes would have done it more good than bad. Regardless, The Last of the Sea Women is still a poignant fairytale that takes the breath away while posing important questions about the extinction of particular jobs and crafts, as modernity drifts away handiwork and digitizes everything in its wake.

The Last of the Sea Women is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.