Seoul Before Sunrise by Samir Dahmani. Life Drawn / Humanoids, 2024. Translated by Nanette McGuinness. 144pp.
Seong-ji and her friend Ji-won get into different universities after taking South Korea’s entrance exams. Even before it happens, Seong-ji is nostalgic for high school and afraid they’ll lose their connection. Ji-won is just excited about the future.
Then the story jumps ahead into their first year at university, when Ji-won hasn’t called or texted Seong-ji for some time. Seong-ji works nights at a convenience store where she thinks about Ji-won and also realizes that she can see clearly into people’s homes at night. And in one of those apartments, she sees a young woman who then comes into the store. She says people tell her things at night, that they’re “chattier than in the daytime.” She starts to stop in regularly. And then she asks Seong-ji to step away from the store for a bit, so she can show Seong-ji something. And that’s how they start to visit empty apartments together.
It’s a quiet, dreamlike adventure in which they get to know each other, as well as people in the neighborhood. Seong-ji also comes to some realizations about herself.
Dahmani really captures Seoul at night, the sense of almost supernatural weirdness that can come over you when the bright, busy city is so still and quiet that it seems like you’re the only person there. I love the transitional moment in Seong-ji’s life he captures, too, as well as the way he illustrates everything. His art is sublime.
