Such films are called “grown-up stories,” but it seems that smart children like Eun-hee are almost adults, unlike most of their peers, a stupid older brother or even someone else, such as the mother of Kim Ji-wan (Eun-hee’s boyfriend), an unbred person who disdains her son’s feelings. "Almost" - as if there is still some point of support that will help Eun-hee to stop suffering beatings from his brother, somehow calmer to his parents and restrain himself so as not to fall into hysteria. Such a point of support becomes for the girl her teacher Chinese Miss Kim - an intelligent and well-read woman, a rarity for the environment in which Eun-hee lives.
When your hands are down with sadness and fatigue, you need to look at your fingers. And start moving them. Seems like there's nothing you can do? See those fingers? There's something you can do. And you can't stand being hit. That's what Miss Kim taught me.
The world around Eun-hee is a world of gaps. Arguments with friends, a breakup with a guy, a divorce of a friend's parents, the passing of an uncle, in addition to all the accident with a part of the bridge that fell under water - like a metaphor for general separation. Therefore, Ms. Kim needs Eun-hee not just as a teacher, but as a hope for the possibility of normal human communication, as an invaluable example of such communication. Which she will certainly keep in her adult life.