Documentary film “The Last of the Sea Woman”, which is currently available on Apple TV+, is about a group of South Korean women who have worked as “haenyeo”, which means “Sea Woman” in Korean. For earning their living via collecting seafood, they frequently dive deep into the ocean without oxygen tank, and they are actually recognized as an important part of the local culture even though their communities have been sadly declining during last several decades.

At first, the documentary introduces us to a bunch of old ladies still working as haenyeo in Jeju Island. Despite their aging status, they all are ready to do their demanding job nonetheless, and the documentary closely shows how these women work in the ocean. Sure, as an expert points out later in the documentary, every dive is pretty risky and difficult for them to say the least, but they do more than 100 dives during several hours everyday, and we see how they collect seafood as much as possible within the few minutes of each dive.  

Many of these ladies have worked as haenyeo for many years since they were very young. While some of them chose this vocation mainly because of economic reasons, others just like being in the ocean, but they are all proud of how they have been the living parts of their local culture. Although their vocation was often disregarded by many others in the past, it was recently recognized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and they are now regarded as respectable elders in their island.

However, the communities of haenyeo in Jeju Island have been considerably decreased due to several causes. As the island goes through more social modernization during last several decades, less young people are willing to do work as haenyeo, and there are only a few thousands of haenyeos in the island at present. While There is actually a little training academy for haenyeo in the island where several old haenyeo willingly impart their skills and experiences to their students, the number of haenyeo in the island still continues to decrease, and they have accepted that they will probably be the last generation of their old profession. No matter how they try to keep going, they become more vulnerable mainly because of aging, and one of them gets a little depressed when she has to stop working in the ocean due to a serious physical injury.

Nevertheless, there is still some hope and possibility for the tradition of haenyeo. Around its middle part, the documentary shifts its focus to Geoje Island, which is located around the southern end of the Korean Peninsula. Although haenyeo has been mainly represented by Jeju Island, many of seaside towns and islands in South Korea actually had a fair number of haenyeos in the past, and we observe how two young haenyeos work together in Geoje Island while often promoting themselves via their YouTube channel.   

One of these young haenyeos gladly talk about how she came to choose her vocation by accident. When her husband’s little private business was shut down, she moved to Geoje Island along with her family, and, what do you know, she became quite passionate about becoming a haenyeo even though she did not have any previous experience before. It was surely quite hard and difficult for her at first, but she soon became an expert, and she is proud of her job as much as those old hanyeos in Jeju Island.

Instead of delving more into this part, the documentary moves back to Jeju Island for showing more about what has recently been threatening not only the haenyeo communities but also the ocean environment surrounding the island. As the island suffers a number of environment problems including the ongoing global climate disruption, the business has been going down for many of haenyeos in the island, and they certainly become quite worried when the Japanese government decides to release a huge amount of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the ocean. When they later have a group meeting with several activists and experts, they show more concern and anger, and it eventually becomes evident to everyone that they should stick and protest together for protecting their sea.

The documentary subsequently shows the haenyeos doing a group demonstration against the South Korean government, which unwisely lets the Japanese government dump the radioactive water into the ocean without much caution. One of them later goes to Geneva, Switzerland for making a speech in English in front of many representatives from a number of various countries around the world, and that is one of the most poignant moments in the documentary. Although they sadly failed to stop the Japanese government in the end, they did as much as possible at least, and that was a small consolation for them.

I must point out that “The Last of the Sea Woman” does not show anything particularly new to me and South Koreans, mainly because we have been quite familiar to its main subject due to a number of recent local documentaries including “Breathing Underwater” (2016). Nevertheless, it is still a fairly engaging and informative documentary on the whole, and director/co-producer Sue Kim, who incidentally produced the documentary with Malala Yousafzai, presents her human subjects with enough care and respect. I wish it showed and told more, but the overall result is mostly solid at least, and I gladly recommend it if you never heard about haenyeo.