Gyeongju

Zhang Lu's 2014 Korean film follows an academic working in Beijing who returns to Gyeongju for a friend's funeral. He is looking for a wall painting he saw years ago in a tea house; the painting is gone and he meets the woman who now runs the place. The film uses the search as a pretext. The man does not quite know what he is looking for; he wanders the city, walks among the tombs and the conversations arrive nowhere. The narrative deliberately preserves that aimlessness. Gyeongju is an old capital and burial mounds stand throughout the city; death and daily life side by side are the film's visual ground. Park Hae-il and Shin Min-a lead. Zhang Lu keeps the pace very low. Who it's for: those who like slow Korean cinema and place-driven narrative. Who it's not for: viewers waiting for event; almost nothing happens across the film.