在公园 공원에서

Following Afternoon Landscape (2020) and Night Walk (2023), Sohn Koo-yong presents his third feature documentary. A cinematic wanderer who savors spaces and finds poetry in nature, Sohn ventures into a park this time with Oh Kyu-won’s poem The Breath of the Garden in his hand. As the 24-verse poem that begins with the line “At 2 in the afternoon, a butterfly fluttered close to the ground” appears as text on the screen, at the park, a bird settles down on a branch, clouds cover the sun, a cat washes its face, a water wheel turns, a fountain sprays water, a koi swims across the pond, and ants diligently go about their work. This “230 square meters of universe,” where the world of text and image merge seamlessly, is perfectly complete in its meaningful meaninglessness. Sohn presents a world that glimmers with fragile transparency, using the repetition, variation, and circulation of minimal things. The film captures a walker’s world, both empty and full at once.