Returning to old haunts after seven years, Choi Hyeon is troubled not by evil spirits, but by questions from his past — subtle, ineffable feelings that compel the mild-mannered college professor, (visiting from Beijing for a colleague’s funeral,) to make a one-night detour through nearby Gyeongju.

Inspired by an erotic painting that Korean-Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu saw in a teahouse, Gyeongju is a serene romantic comedy set in the idyllic titular city. Perhaps the director’s most lighthearted effort, the film nonetheless awes with its rumination on dislocation and the lingering past.