Synopsis
 

Maria’s husband and children give her a puzzle for her 50th birthday. She’s delighted, and finds it a great discovery. Not only does the patient housewife have fun doing the puzzles, she’s also really good at them. Overflowing with enthusiasm for her new-found passion, she goes back to the shop where they bought the gift for another puzzle. There her eye is caught by a notice on the message board: “Partner for puzzle tournament wanted”. Maria musters her courage and, despite her family’s misgivings, answers the announcement.

Program Note
 

An ordinary housewife Maria receives a puzzle for her 50th birthday. After her family goes to bed at night, she comes out to the living room alone and starts to play around with the puzzles just for fun. She finds herself enjoying the puzzles and when it became a new passion, she makes a decision to enter a puzzle tournament. The film Puzzle expresses the details of a life story of a middle-aged woman and her new life situation where she finds her passion almost accidentally. The passion that is triggered by her newfound world of puzzles and competitions present her with excitement in her mundane life as a housewife. Nevertheless, her new passion, thrill and tense emotions towards puzzle are perceived as a threat to her husband and sons.
 The director of the film does not adopt the cliché ways of combining dynamic elements and plots into narratives, such as other ‘survival’ films are with subject matters based on competitions. Instead, she consistently uses a hand held camera, following the female protagonist and making close up shots of her face that captures the dynamic expressions of a the woman’s face that shows all the emotions from agitations, to thrills as she moves towards her fulfillment without fuss at the same time. (KWON Eun-sun)