Gongsoon is a name improvised by the village head when her deaf parents did not register her birth. He came up with it on the spot by quickly pronouncing “Goheung,” her mother's hometown, and that became her name. Once used as a derogatory term for female factory workers, Gongsoon is the name she has lived with ever since. Gongsoon spent many years hanging wallpaper and laying flooring at construction sites. The film captures sweating bodies at work, the repetitive movements of hands, and the quiet passage of ordinary days. I cannot say that making this film helped me understand my mother better. But it allowed me to look at her a little longer than before. Water Deer is a record of the time that grew from those moments.​