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The Last Mermaids: Meet the Oldest Sea Divers in the World
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The Last Mermaids: Meet the Oldest Sea Divers in the World

52 MIN · EN · STATUS: [ STREAMING ]
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On Jeju Island off South Korea, women called Haenyos have free-dived for shellfish and octopus without oxygen tanks for over 2,000 years, a tradition passed from mother to daughter. The film follows divers aged between 45 and 85 as they enter the water with only lead belts and a sharp knife, working the seabed for abalone and octopus. At 83, Ok-sun Hyun has worked as a shell-diver for 65 years and is considered the island's best. Cameras follow the women both underwater and back on land, capturing the physical toll of decades of diving alongside the humor and camaraderie that sustain them. The film treats the work honestly as dangerous and exhausting, but also as a source of pride and identity, while raising the question of whether the tradition can survive as younger generations move away from it. What emerges is a portrait of a vanishing occupation and the women determined to keep doing it as long as their bodies allow.