Planet of Snail: They’re Not Disabled. They’re Married

An unadorned, unsentimental portrait of a marriage, Yi Seung-jun’s documentary celebrates the daily life of an exceptionally collaborative couple. Young-chan is deaf and blind; his wife, Soon-ho, possesses all five senses but is afflicted with a spinal disorder that has stunted her growth. The top of her head comes to just below her beanpole spouse’s heart; the physical proximity of these two body parts aptly suggests their insoluble emotional connection. Although Young-chan can speak—he lost his sight and hearing as a child—Soon-ho communicates with him primarily through finger Braille: She taps words onto his hand, and he responds verbally. Young-chan and Soon-ho are two people very much alive. They toboggan in the winter, swim in the summer, and seem happiest when walking through the woods close to home, just one of their blissful shared rituals. “What I can’t see in reality, I can’t see in my dreams,” Young-chan tells a group of actors who have solicited his advice on how a deaf-blind person moves for a production they’re mounting. What he can always sense all around him, though, whether awake or sleeping, is love.