A funeral singer, a broken daughter, and the sound that haunts her—this grief hits different.
Duk-bae is a seasoned Dasiraegi performer who puts on a stage play-like ritual that ushers the dead into the next life and comforts the bereaved family. His estranged daughter Su-nam comes back home with her child Flower when she hears of her grandmother’s passing after leaving Jindo 20 years ago. Flower is initially scared of her grandfather, but Duk-bae soon opens his heart to the little girl. Su-nam’s trauma kicks in whenever she hears cicadas' crying that she heard when she witnessed her mother committing suicide as a child. Finally, Duk-bae begins the last Dasiraegi of his life to save Su-nam who has been driven to the cliff of life without any hope.
Acting
Lee Yang-hee's weathered silence speaks entire novels.
Direction
Lee Chung-ryoul treats grief like sacred choreography.
Sound
Those cicadas will ruin your summer permanently.
Director
Lee Chung-ryoul
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dasiraegi is a real Jindo Island tradition where professional mourners perform elaborate theatrical funerals, a dying art form that director Lee Chung-ryoul spent years documenting.
The film's Korean title '매미' directly translates to cicada—the insect that lives underground for years only to emerge, sing, and die within weeks, mirroring Su-nam's buried trauma and brief, painful return home.
KR
