What appears on screen is never only image. It is argument, sensation, and the residue of a moment in history trying to understand itself. This section reads cinema and visual culture as aesthetic propositions — attending not just to what is shown, but to how the act of showing produces meaning.
《Salmokji: Whispering Water (2026)》 dir. Lee Sangmin | South Korea | 2026 | 95 min. Starring: Kim Hyeyoon, Lee Jong-won, Kim Jun Han, Kim Young-sung, Oh Dongmin, Yoon Jaechan, Jang Daa Gaston Bachelard, who spent his philosophical career thinking about what the four elements do to the imagination, wrote about the specific terror of dark … Read more
What the Road View Captured: On Lee Sangmin’s Salmokji: Whispering Water 《Salmokji: Whispering Water (2026)》 dir. Lee Sangmin | South Korea | 2026 | 95 min. Starring: Kim Hyeyoon, Lee Jong-won, Kim Jun Han, Kim Young-sung, Oh Dongmin, Yoon Jaechan, Jang Daa Most horror films are built around a question the audience has already answered: … Read more
《Dear X (2025)》 Dear X | TVING | 12 episodes | 2025 | Full spoilers. For plot summary and ending explained: [Dear X — Complete Review] There is a scene near the beginning of Dear X that announces exactly what kind of show it intends to be. A woman is dying at the bottom of … Read more
《Dear X (2025)》 Platform TVING (streaming) Episodes 12 Premiere November 6 – December 4, 2025 Genre Psychological Thriller Source Based on the webtoon Dear X Cast Kim You-jung, Kim Young-dae, Kim Do-hoon, Hwang In-yeop, Hong Jong-hyun Rating ★★★★☆ — 8.0 / 10 The Show That Won’t Let You Feel Safe Dear X announces itself in … Read more
《The Wailing》 dir. Na Hong-jin | South Korea | 2016 | 156 min. Starring: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Jun Kunimura, Chun Woo-hee, Kim Hwan-hee Ten years after its premiere at Cannes, Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing still hasn’t been settled. Not for lack of trying. The film has been subjected to more forensic interpretation than almost … Read more
《Pavane》 dir. Lee Jong-pil | Netflix | South Korea | 2026 | 113 min. Starring: Ko A-sung, Byun Yohan, Moon Sang-min There is a particular kind of sadness that doesn’t announce itself. It arrives not at the moment something ends but from within it — a quiet recognition that the ending was always built into … Read more
《If Wishes Could Kill》 Netflix | 8 Episodes | April 24, 2026 | Full spoilers throughout. For plot summary, cast, and ending explained: see [If Wishes Could Kill — Review & Complete Guide]. The thing that interests me most about If Wishes Could Kill isn’t the curse. It’s the coordinate system. Four characters use the … Read more
《If Wishes Could Kill》 Netflix | 8 Episodes | April 24, 2026 | Full spoilers throughout. For plot summary, cast, and ending explained: see [If Wishes Could Kill — Review & Complete Guide]. At some point, the curse lost its face. In the horror films that defined the genre’s last century, curses lived in things … Read more
《If Wishes Could Kill》 Platform Netflix (Global) Episodes 8 (complete) Premiere April 24, 2026 Genre Korean Supernatural Horror Director Co-directed by Park Yoon-seo (박윤서) Language Korean Cast Jeon So-young, Baek Sunho, Kang Mina, Hyun Woo-seok, Lee Hyo-je, Jeon So-nee, Roh Jae-won, Lee Sang-hee, Kim Sia, Choi Ju-eun Rating ★★★★☆ 8.2 / 10 First, the Honest … Read more
Still from Sentimental Value (2025). Courtesy of Mer Film. On Inheritance, Obsession, and the Ethics of Art There is a distinction, rarely articulated but immediately felt, between films that use art as a subject and films that interrogate it. The first category is comfortable, even celebratory: art as redemption, as self-discovery, as the thing that … Read more