Mimang (미망): What’s in This Title?

Loved Celine Song’s "Past Lives"? Interested in a shorter Korean version of Richard Linklater's Before trilogy? Then check out the upcoming film "Mimang." But wait, what’s in this title?


🎬 Main trailer (English subs):

📝 About the Film: cultureflipper.com/blog/mimang

Mimang is a Korean word with layered meanings, and each of the film’s three parts explores a different facet of the word that corresponds to a stage in the characters’ lives.

Part 1: Reunion - Written in Sino-Korean characters as 迷妄, mimang means wandering around lost and disoriented. A man gets off at the wrong bus stop and is lost when he runs into a woman from his past. Reunited after many years, they reminisce about their younger days as lost souls. While searching for his destination, the woman comments that she still gets lost despite using navigation tools, and he replies that getting lost is how we learn.

Part 2: Encounters - Written as 未忘, mimang means something that’s hard to forget. Time has passed and the woman walks down the same streets with another man, a love interest, while recalling memories of the past.

Part 3: Farewell - Written as 彌望, mimang means a far-and-wide perspective. The man and the woman run into each other again at a friend’s funeral, and as they walk the streets at night, they reflect on the turns their lives have taken, looking at them through a wide-angle lens.

But wait, there’s one more thing in this title. Director Kim Tae-yang came up with yet another way to write mimang: 微望, a small wish. Perhaps one of touching the lives of viewers with a meandering story that quietly resonates with them.