In the village of Geumsori in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, there are two elderly women known as the “Tigers of Sambe.” One of them is Woo Bok-in (87), a renowned Sambe artisan who has been weaving Sambe for 60 years using a 100-year-old traditional loom. The other is Seo Sun-Hwa (84), a skilled artisan who is second to Woo Bok-in.

One day, as harvesting hemp approached, a young woman with dyed yellow hair visited these two elderly women.

“I will do anything to learn from you. Please teach me just once! If even you elders pass away, how will we learn Sambe?”

This young woman, Kim Su-kyung (50), believes she can create a “fiber Hallyu” by modernizing Sambe. However, the two elderly women calmly turned her down. They explained that learning Sambe is not something one can easily do, and it’s not something you can decide to learn.

To these two grandmothers, Sambe was the destiny of women, the crooked fingers they were born with, and life itself. They learned it from their mothers and grandmothers through hard work and dedication, and it was not something anyone could pick up.

“Not just anyone can do it. Look at how my fingers are all bent. I used to weave Sambe even while breastfeeding a newborn on my knee. If you’re just going to pretend to learn and then leave, don’t even think about starting.”
– Seo Sun-hwa (Sambe Master) –

“You can’t learn it no matter how many years you try. In our time, women had to be good at weaving to be considered worthy. If you were skilled at weaving, you could marry a good man, whether he was a village head or a military officer. So, I learned it even while being scolded by my mother-in-law. That’s not something you can do.”
– Woo Bok-in (Andong Sambe Master) –

However, the craftsperson, Kim Su-kyung, was persistent. Despite having a husband and children, she packed her bags and moved to Geumsori. She brought Western looms with her, and her presence began to make waves in the quiet lives of the two grandmothers.

Kim Su-kyung, armed with her Western looms, appeared in Andong, determined to win over the hearts of these two stubborn Sambe artisans. Will she be able to convince them to embrace her modernization ideas? And will she find the answer to modernizing Sambe?

[Production 2] Park Sung-hee kbs.psh@kbs.co.kr