Slow and Steady

A Romance Veiled in Mystery: The Premiere of 'In Your Brilliant Season' In Your Brilliant Season, which recently premiered as MBC’s new Friday-Saturday drama, is a romance that depicts the story of a man and a woman stained with scars. However, beyond a simple melodrama, a subtle mystery is deeply laid beneath the surface, stimulating viewers' curiosity. Lee Sung-kyung and Chae Jong-hyeop, who boast both great visuals and acting skills, were cast as the male and female leads, drawing massive attention even before the broadcast. Their meeting, as bright as spring cherry blossoms, is eye-catching in itself, but as the play unfolds, the chilling and heartbreaking backstories hidden behind the bright atmosphere slowly unveil, heightening immersion. For viewers who enjoy narratives with intersecting emotional lines, it is a drama that boasts enough suction power to steal your gaze from the very first episode. Chae Jong-hyeop's Explosive Popularity: The 'Eye Love You'...

A Welcome Title, The Film Adaptation of the Novel 'Pavane for a Dead Princess' As soon as I saw the title of the new Netflix movie Pavane, a certain book naturally crossed my mind. It is author Park Min-gyu's novel Pavane for a Dead Princess, which left a deep lingering impression on many readers in the late 2000s. It's a memory from so long ago that I can't even pinpoint exactly when I read it, but the shock delivered by its unique sensibility and narrative still remains in my mind. The fact that this masterpiece novel has finally been adapted into a film and come to us is more than enough to bring both great joy and a strange excitement to fans who remember the original work. Change in Era: From the Nostalgia of the 80s and 90s to the Modern Day with Smartphones One of the biggest differences between the original novel and the movie is the setting of the era. The original novel faintly depicted the outskirts of Seoul in the transition from the 1980s to the 90s, a ...

A Cruel Variation of the Trolley Problem, Asking the Definition of Justice Do you know the "Trolley Problem," one of the most widely cited dilemmas in ethics and behavioral economics? A train with broken brakes is running, and there are five workers on the track ahead. If you pull a lever, the train changes direction, sacrificing only one worker to save five. Would you pull the lever? From a utilitarian perspective of "the greatest happiness for the greatest number," saving five might seem rational, but the debate over whether it is morally right to calculate human life in numbers is endless. The newly released drama Bloody Flower on Disney+ is a controversial work that grafts this classic philosophical problem onto the crime thriller genre, throwing a cool and heavy question to the viewers. If a murderer developed medical skills to save more lives based on those sacrifices, could we condemn him? The Power of a Solid Original, Bringing Lee Dong-gun's 'Flower...

A Familiar Yet Unfamiliar Conclusion: The Illusion of Having Seen It As a movie enthusiast, especially regarding the Terminator series, which is called the bible of the SF action genre, I prided myself on having watched every installment. However, strangely enough, Terminator: Dark Fate, the latest entry in the series, felt oddly unfamiliar to me. The appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton in the poster was incredibly familiar, yet it was a bizarre experience where the specific content of the movie did not form a picture in my head. Perhaps the fatigue given by the numerous sequels that have poured out over the years and the repetitive consumption of similar images created the illusion that I had already seen it even though I hadn't. It was only after watching it by chance on a cable channel that I realized this movie was the true final chapter of the series that I had missed or perhaps ignored. The Burden of Sequels Left Behind by the Legendary T1 and T2 The Termin...

A Shift in Strategy: From Spectacle to Depth, Netflix Finds a New Path If we examine the recent trends of OTT platforms, including Netflix, we can sense a distinct shift from the early days when blockbuster action movies, pouring in massive capital to provide flashy spectacles, were the dominant force. Initially, stimulating visuals of destruction and explosions were the most powerful weapons to attract subscribers, but as time passes, more viewers are feeling fatigued by these monolithic contents. Cases where vast production budgets resulted in failure in both criticism and box office due to weak narratives and improbable developments have become frequent, leading to a strategic correction within Netflix. Now, movies that possess weighty messages and solid narratives—even if somewhat heavy and requiring serious reflection—are capturing viewers' hearts and acting as key players in increasing "watch time," rather than those offering mere visual pleasure. In this flow, the ...