“Poet | Artist” (SHINee)
Na Wonyoung (Music Critic): What kind of poetic license can SHINee lay claim to with “Poet | Artist”? Humanity was given license to reproduce the voice of someone who isn’t physically there over a century ago thanks to recording technology. Now, that longstanding poetic license is being put to real use for the first time in a long time with JONGHYUN’s previously recorded solo guide vocals as he hums during the song’s bridge. (Those of us missing SHINee member JONGHYUN also got to hear his voice in “Lock You Down.”) In fact, the poetic license in “Poet | Artist” comes from the parts without JONGHYUN’s words. As the four members of the group jokingly complain in a behind-the-scenes video, JONGHYUN’s presence on this track isn’t limited to his beautiful voice but resonates throughout the entire soundscape. The shimmering electronic tones as sophisticated as those from his second studio album of the same name, the rhythm that wobbles as it pushes and pulls itself along, the way certain words are rushed or delayed to match that staggering sound, and the vocal techniques reminiscent of the R&B artists like Maxwell and Zion.T that he loved—JONGHYUN makes his presence felt across every inch of “Poet | Artist.” And SHINee’s poetic license comes to fruition by embracing all those aspects that shaped JONGHYUN’s music.

While JONGHYUN had previously helped write SHINee songs like their fourth-album opener “Odd Eye” and fifth-album opener “Prism,” nothing in the group’s discography has ever been as densely layered with JONGHYUN’s touch as this one. The group faithfully followed the demo he left behind, carefully bringing everything that made JONGHYUN who he was into the present through the use of their own voices. As a result, there’s another kind of magic at play that makes it feel like you’re hearing JONGHYUN in the intricate soundscape even when his voice doesn’t take center stage. In that way, a song JONGHYUN wrote for SHINee becomes one the group sings for the late artist, bridging the gap between past and present, presence and absence, and, like the words “Vibe to me, vibe to ya” suggest, it’s a song where the group gives themselves license to embrace each other. In fact, with “No walls between us / No matter how others think of us,” the members of SHINee have long been intertwined like blue starlight, lighting each other up like the group’s name suggests. “Poet | Artist” simply reminds us of the fact in a way that’s as fresh as it is moving.

“Lost in Starlight” (Netflix)
Bae Dongmi (“CINE21” reporter): Astronaut Nan-young (voiced in the Korean by Kim Tae-ri) dreams of following in her mother’s footsteps. Her mother was an astronaut who went to Mars and never returned, and Nan-young takes off to Mars herself, only to find herself back in Korea later on. While continuing her research so she can board a spacecraft, Nan-young roams the streets of Jongno, a district in Seoul, to get her mother’s old turntable repaired, and ends up crossing paths with Jay (Hong Kyung), a young man who fixes analog machines. The film, which abruptly brings the two characters together, is a delicate portrayal of their journey as they drift apart before gradually drawing closer again. As Nan-young and Jay go hunting together for parts to fix the turntable, they accidentally brush hands, sort out how they should address each other over food, and, finding themselves suddenly caught in a rainstorm, share an umbrella.

But it soon comes time for them to part. Nan-young, who has spent her whole life chasing her mother’s shadow, finds herself a chance to board a spaceship to Mars in dramatic fashion, while Jay also gets an opportunity to debut as a musician, a dream he had long pushed aside. Before their feelings have even had a chance to cool, they drift apart, each pursuing their own paths—paths that lead to Earth and Mars, farther away from each other than when they didn’t even know of each other’s existence. The irony is that the farther apart they are, the more intense their love grows. There are some things you can only see clearly when you look at them from a distance, just as you can suddenly hear the faint voice of someone who’s faded from your side.

A chance encounter in the street that sets a love between two people ablaze, an incongruous mix of Earth, space, and memory that transcends time and space, and a flood of abstract, untraceable imagery—all this flows together seamlessly in director Jiwon Han’s film “Lost in Starlight,” an animated delight that will transport you to unexpected places. The film proves that cinema as a medium can convey deeply profound emotions without the need for a complicated storyline. Just like the Lumière brothers astonished audiences with “The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station,” cinema remains an art form that can wow and amaze with worlds beyond our own reality. “Lost in Starlight,” though released direct-to-digital on Netflix, evokes the same kind of emotions as early cinema. You can see this in the breathtakingly mesmerizing series of images Nan-young sees as the oxygen levels drop on Mars and elevate the love between the two main characters in a particularly unique and profound way. Just as early film amazed and moved audiences in silence, this film harnesses the pure power of imagery to achieve the same.