“Romantics Anonymous” (Netflix)
Catherine Choi(Guest Editor): Hana is a genius chocolatier, but almost no one knows her name. She suffers from a fear of being seen. Every morning, she puts on her helmet and leaves boxes of her chocolates at Le Sauveur, the shop of her teacher and master chocolatier, Kenji. Then she quietly slips away. After Kenji’s passing, Hana steps inside Le Sauveur for the first time. There, for the first time in her life, she dares to meet another person’s eyes. But the miracle isn’t hers alone. Sosuke, the heir to a confectionery company now running Le Sauveur, lives with an extreme fear of contamination. Yet when their hands brush, for the first time, he feels warmth instead of panic.

As they work together to recreate Kenji’s “Rainbow Palette,” they start to open up about their pasts. “I can’t touch other people,” Sosuke says. “But I can touch you, Hana.” One rainy night, he spots Hana walking alone and offers her his umbrella. Then, as the rain starts soaking his sleeve, he suddenly pulls back. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry, but could you just walk in the rain instead?” He runs off, leaving her standing there. Drenched, Hana runs after him. “Maybe we can help each other,” she says. They decide to help each other overcome their fears. Over time, their feelings for each other deepen, but for the two hedgehogs who keep running away, confessing love is as hard as crafting the perfect chocolate. On a train ride, Sosuke puts in one of Hana’s earphones and hears the song “Confession,” a Park Hye-kyung ballad. Perhaps the foreign lyrics touch something unspoken in him; he smiles softly and lets Hana rest her head on his shoulder. Each episode opens with the Japanese remake of “Confession,” a love letter sung in their own languages, names erased, rewritten, and erased again.

They say life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. Through a miraculous coincidence, Hana and Sosuke begin to taste joy, sadness, and quiet excitement, one feeling at a time, until they finally discover the richest flavor of all. “Chocolate is love. It’s the wish to make someone you cherish a little happier.” At last, Hana realizes who she had been making chocolates for all along. “I like you,” she says. “No,” Sosuke answers softly. “This is love.” Together, they complete the final piece of their own chocolate box, sealing it with each other’s names.

“Bugonia” 
Bae Dongmi(CINE21 Reporter): The ancient Mediterranean people are said to have practiced a peculiar ritual called “Bugonia” whenever bees became scarce. Believing that bees could be born from the carcass of an ox, they would kill a healthy cow, seal it away, and scatter herbs over it. After three weeks, they would open a window to let in fresh air, wait another eleven days, and then only the bones and hide of the cow would remain, while a swarm of bees would have emerged from within. Whether Bugonia was widely practiced is unclear, but its essence still feels relevant today. Yet its essence still feels relevant today: the impulse to sacrifice others in pursuit of a goal, even when such acts bring us no closer to achieving it, remains a familiar pattern in human history.

Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a struggling worker, is convinced that Michelle (Emma Stone), a powerful CEO, is in fact an alien. In his mind, she is one of the beings from the Andromeda system who are controlling humanity and must be driven off the planet. To negotiate directly with the Andromedan emperor and plead for Earth’s liberation, Teddy kidnaps Michelle, whom he believes to be a senior figure among the aliens, with the help of his naive cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). In Teddy’s delusion, Michelle’s hair, supposedly the Andromedans’ means of telepathic communication, is cut off. In a basement, bound and bewildered, Michelle listens in disbelief as Teddy rants about aliens. She insists that she is “the heart of the local economy” and “more important than the governor,” warning that a missing-person investigation will begin within forty-eight hours. Yet Teddy remains resolute, demanding again and again that she arrange a meeting with the alien emperor. Is he, like the ancients, performing a delusional ritual of Bugonia? It slowly emerges that Michelle, too, has sacrificed others to achieve her goals. So, which of the two is the true practitioner of Bugonia?

The film “Bugonia” is a remake of the Korean cult classic “Save the Green Planet! (2003).” With labor becoming ever more dehumanized and social inequality increasingly severe, the skeletal narrative first crafted twenty-two years ago may resonate even more strongly with today’s audiences. For viewers already stunned by the twist in “Save the Green Planet!”, “Bugonia” reassures them that the remake has lost none of its sharpness. The two films share much of the same story, but their form diverges. Shot in a near-square 1.50:1 aspect ratio, known as “VistaVision,” rather than the original’s widescreen 16:9, “Bugonia” tightens its frame to center the characters. Director Yorgos Lanthimos often places them in the middle of the shot, revealing more of their surroundings: the cramped, dim rooms of Teddy’s home and the bright, spacious interiors of Michelle’s world. When filmed from a distance, the ample vertical margins heighten the sense of pressure bearing down on each figure.

Jacob Collier – “The Light For Days”
Kim Hyojin(Music Columnist): Jacob Collier’s music is both technical and precise. Each note is placed with painstaking care, building toward an ultimate sense of harmony. He layers instrument upon instrument, sometimes crafting an entire orchestra out of his own voice. To achieve the flawless sound he envisions, he spends countless hours refining every detail. Listening to his four-part Djesse series, it no longer feels exaggerated when he likens himself to “Jesus.” The title fits: Collier is a true creator, gathering the sounds of the world to build something elegant and immense.

This time, however, he strips everything away, relying solely on an acoustic guitar. Above it, only his voice remains. The Light For Days, an eleven-track album completed in just four days, not only proves his genius but also makes us reconsider what music truly is. Collier’s answer is simple: it is nature itself. From beginning to end, the songs flow with the grain of nature. Once again, he stands at the center, guiding us into a vast natural landscape.