Pre-Suzume

I swear, if it wasn't ₩8,000 per ticket, I wouldn't have done this.

Alas, I couldn't resist the cheap ticket prices and heavenly caramel popcorn. One of the biggest things I wanted to do in Korea was to go to a movie theater and watch a Korean film. While I've yet to see a Korean movie in theaters (I promise I'll get to it soon!), I have pretty much watched all of Shinkai Makoto's films thanks to the lovely promotion offered by 시네마캐슬 a.k.a. Cinema Castle. They already managed to lure me in with Kimi no Nawa (Your Name), but I got to say, the budget-friendly ticket price really sold it for me. That along with the sweet, sweet caramel popcorn was like the ultimate combo. (They're just regular caramel popcorn, by the way. I just really like caramel popcorn.)

It all started with Suzume no Tojimari (Suzume's Locking Up), Shinkai's latest film, which is actually super popular in Korea right now. When I went to purchase my ticket at the kiosk, I noticed that Kimi no Nawa also showed up as one of the options. Though I was surprised, I was also thrilled because I'd only seen it on my tiny laptop screen and was looking forward to seeing it on the big screens for the first time. Little did I know, that would be the start of my Shinkai Makoto theater binge, as I have watched all of his films that were being offered in theaters.

All s e v e n of them.

I mean, not going to lie, I definitely have my faves, but I was surprised I actually watched them all. His earlier films do follow older trends and narrative progressions, very different from Suzume, but nevertheless, I still enjoyed the journey overall.

This will probably never happen again, unless I happen to be in Korea when he releases a new film in a couple of years. But we shall see.