YEOM Ki-jung has owned the same bar for the past 34 years. In its heyday, it was a popular cultural salon where directors, actors, and writers gathered as regular customers. Now, at 62, her bar is on the verge of closing. She decided to take her bar on the road in a series of pop-up locations to find new customers and say hello to some familiar faces. The Novel, is a bar that first opened near Ewha Womans University in 1988, moved to Insa-dong, and then Gahoe-dong, before returning to Insa-dong, making it a household name. Once it served as a favorite hang-out for novelists, poets, and personalities from the art, music, architecture, media, and film industries, and was also a place for public debate, without bias to either left or right. In the Seoul Edition from his book, My Survey of Cultural Heritage, Yoo Hong-jun recalls that Making Peace, a then famous bar in Insa-dong, was like the publication company Creation and Criticism, while The Novel had the atmosphere of Literature and Intelligence, the rival company. However, Lim Beom, a former journalist who works in the film industry now, said Making Peace was a place for the condescending old men and The Novel was for the rascal kids, which resonates more. Ki-jeong Yeom, owner of The Novel and former singer, played an essential role in building the bar’s reputation. Regulars visited the bar every day, drawn in by the charm or magic of Ki-jeong Yeom, and the documentary highlights this element. Yeom moved to a place near Hanok village in Jeonju some years ago, and reopened The Novel, but when the business did not go as well as she expected, she did business by traveling around the country and opening The Travelling Novel, inviting her own acquaintances, like director Im Soon-rye, and the CEO of Myung Films, Lee Eeun. Also, Park Ki-yong, Chairman of the Korean Film Council, and various actors, including Lee Hye-yeong, Jung Jin-young, Kwon Hae-hyo, as well as architects, announcers, novelists, musicians, and craftspeople all joined, reminiscing about their time with Yeom. (MOON Seok)
