How “Crying in H Mart” made me cry for reconciliation — Never in a million years did I imagine I would cry while doing leisure reading. For a few days in a row, I found myself totally losing it reading Crying in H Mart on the couch, in the comfort of my home. As I reached Chapter 10: Living and Dying…

And how it shaped my worldview I woke up to a pleasant surprise this morning. Finally, with a bit of luck (and was still confused about how the system works), I received the notification about my first COVID-19 vaccination that will happen this week. It took me a while to…

Life cannot be proofread by others; we can only read through it in earnest — I thought I was going to read about solitude, misogyny, and romance in the city. Fuyuko Irie was more than a person living with solitude. Solitude could be a personal choice. In a different way, loneliness may be forced on to you due to your nonconformity and hostility (loneliness due…

A poem modeled after lyrics of Winter Sleep by IU — Today is the first day of Spring on the lunar calendar. I have been itching for words after spending days in my stuffy chamber being a vintner of academic journals. 😫 Four lines were chosen from one of IU’s latest releases — Winter Sleep. Being one of the most prolific…

A message from nature and a reminder to change — During the weekend of December 18-19, 2021, multiple cities in Malaysia were hit by the worst flood of this decade. On that Saturday night, I saw a photo of Hallasan, the highest mountain standing in Jeju Island, South Korea, covered in snow. The people in Seoul enjoyed themselves in the…

How this dark melodrama cooked up a storm called “The Price of Everything” — I am not entirely sure how many Korean TV series I have consumed since May 2020. I am pretty sure that I have not come across a story as ravaging as Reflection of You. To make things worse for the audience, the acting of the leads were super convincing. 😰…

As we approach death, let us think about how we can grace the event called “life” — “What exists, exists so that it can be lost and become precious.” — Lisel Mueller They are not coincidences when movies or stories with the label of Greatest of All Time start the first scene with a funeral. It is the end for the dead, but those left behind have…

Leaving on a transgender’s conundrum — The cosmetics entrepreneur Nur Sajat was charged after she dressed in women’s attire during a religious event in Malaysia. Born in 1985 as Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman and now identified as a trans woman, she was reportedly fled to seek asylum in Australia. This case did not see the light…

The secret chord of life is hidden, somewhere in the stars. It has been more than a week since the last chapter of Lost (인간실격) hit our small screens. For people who cherish this work of art, there was so much careful deliberation between moral and desire, life and death…