I interviewed Director Minhyuk Che & Producer Sngmoo Lee about 8pm and the Cat on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.
Here is the story synopsis for 8pm and the Cat:
- “Cartoonist Haru loses his partner, Mina, in the Itaewon tragedy. Since then, 8 pm — the hour she used to come home — keeps repeating: an ordinary moment in daily life now shadowed by her absence. Within that single hour, different emotional rooms unfold. Images and monologues are generated in real time, shaping singular emotional moments. This generative VR experience invites the audience into Haru’s ongoing process of mourning — through the act of constantly drawing and speaking about her.”
Here are the contextual domains that are explored:
- Death, Loss, Grief [8] of a primary partner [7], the Pain and Suffering [12], as well as the home and artifacts that carry the memories of a relationship [4]
Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:
1st Center of Gravity of Emotional Presence: Story of loss and grief – The connection between Space and Emotion |
2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Tell the story off loss by montage sequences of objects, spaces, and the liminal afterlife |
3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Generative AI prompt — But also certain aspects of the story is also being dynamically generated and changes each time, although this is harder to discern what was authored and what was generative |
4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Monologues / subtitles |
Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:
- Incredible loss and grief, and the malaise of that, allusions to the afterlife as it explores the theme of “loving someone for a long time, beyond absence” – Cyclical nature of time of the Chronos Time and Kairos Time, with 8p becoming a daily reminder of the loss. “October 29, 2022: 159 people did not return home from Itaewon. The hour stayed still.”
Artist Statement:
- “When a friend told me they didn’t know how to live after losing the person they loved most, I didn’t know what to say. How could I possibly grasp the depth of that grief? We don’t even know what it truly means to overcome such sorrow. Maybe it means to keep longing for the one who’s gone, to keep speaking to them, to let them stay alive inside us. This work was an attempt to hold onto that feeling — of loving someone for a long time, beyond absence.”
This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.
Music: Fatality
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