Video Project: Synopsis & Storyboard
A mother in Korea gives a mug to her daughter and the daughter gives that mug to her daughter -- the mug travels through the female line for decades. The mug is said to be one of the last pieces handmade by a Korean master potter right before the Japanese annexation of Korea and the resulting shutdown of Korean craftsmen and businesses. The women learn to keep the mug safe from Japanese officers by hanging it with a string under their long traditional skirts. With the start of the Korean War, the daughter (and current owner of the mug) emigrates to New York. During her long trip to New York she keeps the mug hidden and safe,as it is her only tie to her entire family history. She builds a life for herself in New York City: she lives in Flushing, works at a laundromat, and, in her spare time, makes watercolor paintings of the mug. She carries the mug with her everywhere but never uses it. One day she goes to the MET and sees Italian terracotta bowls on display and wonders, where did those bowls come from and how did they end up in the museum? She thinks her mug should be in a museum; it has lived through many lives and it deserves a place of honor. Back home, she makes a shrine for the mug but begins to feel anxious. What if the mug falls? What if the mug breaks? She decides to bury the mug in her garden so that it cannot be damaged. The woman visits the buried mug everyday. She dies without having a child to pass the mug onto.
