The subject is fate
or karma
or personal feng shui, if you will. An uneducated, uncultured woman pushes her husband and child. She loves them, but she is abrasive, and frankly, very difficult to live with. She simply knows no other way. Sadly, her behavior helps drive her husband to make some very destructive choices, and since he is far closer to the boy than she, the boy grows to despise her. The situation grows worse as circumstances lead to the permanent absence of the father, an absence that leads her to make some extremely painful sacrifices in order to better assure a good life for her boy. Still, she is never able to break the ice and emotionally connect with the child. Instead, she allows the child to be raised by her husband's mother while she works overtime to support the three of them as a human ox, literally carrying the burden of others for a living. And does the grandparent appreciate this? No, she too blames the woman for her son's absence, and through her closeness with the grandson, further plants the seeds of hatred within him.
Then again, maybe the mother's sacrifices aren't so selfless. Maybe she is simply looking after herself, supporting the pair so that her son, one day, will be in a better position to support her. In the end, the film provides no easy answers. Everyone's pain is both understandable and inexcusable. And all that an unskilled, manual laborer can do is simply keep pushing along.
