American melancholy: The real loss in “Past Lives” isn’t love

March 8, 2024April 6, 2024 Jae-Ha Kim

In the Academy Award-nominated film “Past Lives,” the Korean concept of inyeon is used to lead viewers into believing that Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae-sung (Teo Yoo) are destined to be together – if not in this lifetime, then in the future. Or perhaps they were together in a distant past that neither can recall. The introduction of the word leaves moviegoers hoping that these two can have a happily-ever-after ending, despite his living in Seoul, 7,000 miles from her apartment in New York City.

How “Physical: 100” should level up in light of its anticlimactic finale

February 24, 2023April 6, 2024 Jae-Ha Kim

The hit reality show “Physical: 100” had a ho-hum ending that highlights what could’ve been if the competition were more fair and strategic.

Don’t believe the K-dramas: Look to “Return to Seoul” for a more realistic view on Korean adoptees

December 10, 2022March 7, 2024 Jae-Ha Kim

In the superb “Return to Seoul” – which is Cambodia’s Oscar entry for the Best International Film category – French Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (“Golden Slumbers”) takes a look at what it means to be an adoptee who unexpectedly is reunited with her birth parents.