For the 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.s and came to the United States, marriage was an escape from the crushing poverty of postwar Korea. And Thereafter is a memorable portrait of one of these women, Young-Ja Wike, whose dreams of Mikook, or “beautiful country,” began crumbling soon after her arrival. Award-winning director Hosup Lee offers a privileged view into her isolated existence as she tends to her garden of chili peppers and deals with her husband and grown children. For the Vancouver Film Festival, And Thereafter was “one of the most haunting portraits of the year…. As the intimate details of everyday life collect, the film quietly reveals a disturbingly dysfunctional family. We also sense the cultural violence of militarism and patriarchy....In the end we can't help but admire (Young-Ja's) ability to survive and love.”