Mr. Kim Goes to the Cinema

Mr. Kim, a retiree in South Korea, visits an empty cinema every day. He doesn't buy tickets or watch films. He simply sits in the auditorium, sometimes sleeping, sometimes reading a newspaper. To the staff, he has become part of the furniture, a quiet ghost of a bygone era. Documentarian Kim Jong-hwan observed this ritual for three years, transforming the mundane into a meditative study of solitude, memory, and public space in the digital age. The 2026 documentary is an intimate portrait where the main action unfolds in pauses and glances, and the cinema becomes a temple for a congregation of one.