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Scent of a Ghost
Movie

Scent of a Ghost

2019 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

Ji Yeon is a beautiful university student, majoring in music. She is dating Dong Seok, but Dong Seok’s parents want him to study abroad. The day before he is scheduled to leave South Korea to study abroad, he prepares a proposal event for Ji Yeon. Ji Yeon does not appear at the event.

Overall Series Review

Scent of a Ghost is a South Korean film that blends horror, romance, and comedy, focusing on the disappearance of a music student, Ji Yeon, and her persistent boyfriend, Dong Seok. The central conflict is rooted in a traditional romantic relationship complicated by Dong Seok's parents pushing him to study abroad, a ghost rumor, and the mystery surrounding Ji Yeon's fate. The narrative structure adheres to a traditional genre format without importing Western-style progressive social commentary. Supernatural elements are handled by a positively depicted traditional spiritual figure, a shaman. The primary focus remains on a personal love story and the subsequent mystery, resulting in a low level of ideologically-driven content across all categories.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The plot's primary drivers are personal love, family disapproval, and a supernatural mystery, not race or intersectional hierarchy. The entirely Korean cast and setting means the narrative avoids concerns like vilification of 'whiteness' or forced diversity.

Oikophobia2/10

The film is a genre piece set in South Korea that features a shaman as a good-hearted traditional spiritual figure. The story does not frame the home culture as fundamentally corrupt or demonize ancestors, instead using a local ghost rumor and family drama as the conflict basis.

Feminism3/10

The main conflict centers on a traditional male-female romantic relationship, involving a proposal and a search for the missing girlfriend. There is no information suggesting the female lead is a 'Mary Sue' or that the male lead is specifically emasculated or toxic, though the movie contains 'slapstick sex comedy' elements.

LGBTQ+1/10

The entire central storyline is structured around the pairing of the male and female lead and their pursuit of a traditional relationship. There is no presence of alternative sexual ideology, centering of non-normative sexualities, or lecturing on gender theory.

Anti-Theism2/10

The core of the movie is supernatural, involving a ghost and a shaman, which validates a non-material, spiritual reality. The shaman is portrayed as benevolent and helpful, indicating that traditional spiritualism is a source of strength rather than an object of hostility or a root of evil.