Agents of Mystery (Netflix)
Kwag Jayeon: Producer Jung Jong-yeon produced his second Netflix series since The Devil’s Plan entitled Agents of Mystery; it shows all the characteristics of his previous works like The Great Escape and Girls' High Mystery Class but with some new takes. Agents of Mystery involves solving mysteries within a designated space just like The Great Escape and Girls' High Mystery Class but this time, the scale is at an unprecedented level: waves crash in, the set is a 90-degrees rotating submarine, and alien creatures appear on set. The size and design of the set that shouts Netflix money elevates both the guests and viewers’ level of immersion while the guests share chemistry that’s on a whole other level. While The Great Escape and Girls' High Mystery Class consist of all male and female casts respectively, Agents of Mystery boasts a co-ed cast including Lee Yong-jin, John Park, Lee Eun-ji, Hyeri, and Kim Do-hoon and Karina. They seemed awkward at first, but the ice was quickly broken; each person found their roles and showed great teamwork. Kim Do-hoon took on the role of a passionate “tanker” which is traditionally a masculine role as he was seen grabbing and running with one of the NPCs. Karina was the perfect “healer” - she packed everything they needed to complete the missions, calling herself the porter, but at times showed completely different sides of herself by taking the initiative to solve the problems at hand. Lee Yong-jin and Kim Do-hoon who called themselves the “Machaz” showed us amazing teamwork despite only having met once before. Producer Jung Jong-yeon brought comfortable familiarity to the new show to boost immersiveness while the new large-scale set and new characters brought in the fun. I can’t wait to see the next season of the Agents of Mystery.

Love Lies Bleeding
Jeong Seohui (Cinema Journalist): Life is dull. A person’s face who is bored out of their mind looks blase. The moment gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) who has no facial expression and Jackie (Katy O’Brian) who is a body builder meet marks the sudden beginning of their love and a turning point at which they begin to gain monster strength to overcome their oppression. Lou is smothered in helplessness. She grew up witnessing her father Lou Sr. (Ed Harris) commit crime, and now she has grown up to an adult who lives near her sister Beth (Jena Malone) to protect her from being beat up by her husband JJ (Dave Franco). Jackie’s muscles were a weapon of sorts which was grown from being bullied for being “fat” in her childhood. Jackie uses the steroids that Lou gave her to feed her desire to grow larger and stronger. They quickly lose their sense of morals. Love Lies Bleeding is a film about the human body. Lou and Jackie make love and protect their love with their bodies. They share each other’s pain in bodily synchronization. It isn’t enough for them to simply cry together for their love. They engage in bloody hand-to-hand combat, which inexplicably turn them into giants. They eliminate anything and everything that stands in the way of their peace. Their story is much more than a narrative of self-defense. It is a killer love story in which the two women choose to go down a bumpy unpaved road. There’s a lot that you can do when “you” want “me” and “I” want “you.”

Chuu - “Honeybee”
Randy Suh (Music Writer): The track on Chuu’s second mini album Strawberry Rush. The lead single “Strawberry Rush” is incredibly energetic, and there is a superhero movie-like liveliness to the music video, but “Honeybee” feels like a small prop by comparison. It’s compact, yes, but it still has that fun K-pop flair. The bossa nova guitar creates a comfortable and clean vibe in the intro and verse but soon unexpected elements enter the scene. There even is a quick paced break beat in the chorus. Compared to the vocal track, it is quiet and pushed to the background, which stops the song from sounding like a dance tune, yet the busy drums are reminiscent of the honeybee flapping its wings, hence the title. Unlike her cute and at times facetious character that she officially assumes, her vocal timbre is soft and there is a mild, somewhat mature feel about her even when she breaks into a huge smile. This might be the reason why even her lightest songs feel like they have substance. How I wish that she would rise up to the sky like a honeybee without any worries or strife. I see your incredible music, and raise you my gratitude and support.

My Husband by Maud Ventura
Kim Boksung (Writer): They say if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.
There’s some things in life we find impossible to define with anything other than the well-worn phrase, “I know it when I see it.” Love, certainly, falls under that umbrella. Or at least, it should.
The (mostly) nameless narrator of My Husband, the debut novel by French author Maud
Ventura, has, for the past 15 years of her marriage, had the kind of relationship most of us can only dream of. And yet she constantly questions the validity of that love—specifically, does her husband really love her back?—to the point of clear, absolute obsession. Her system of checks, tests, punishments, and planning to keep her relationship, as she sees it, stable, is darkly amusing. The jealousy she harbors toward her own children for spending time with their father reeks of a twisted Oedipal narrative.
The book is told almost exclusively from her perspective, with little dialogue and even less of
what a person should consider true love. In its place is plenty of gaslighting, stalker-like
behavior, and so much unhinged inner monologue that the reader might want to take breaks
throughout. How you feel about the book as a whole might ultimately hinge on how you feel
about the ending, but if nothing else, this “romantic suspense” story will have you asking
whether never being able to fully know your romantic partner is necessarily a bad thing.