Movie theaters have always been at the center of my memories. When I was young, whenever my parents and I went downtown, our itinerary was always centered around the movie theater. Since the screening times were fixed, we would shop or eat before or after. The place our family frequented back then was the Hanil Theater in Dongseong-ro. At the Hanil Theater , I watched * Cliffhanger * , starring my childhood idol Sylvester Stallone (there was a line over 100 meters long, but thanks to my father's junior who was selling scalped tickets, I was able to get in easily), and *Speed * , featuring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, who were still newcomers at the time (it was the most entertaining movie I had ever seen). After I was able to go to the theater alone, I saw *Mission : Impossible * at the Daegu Theater (my all-time favorite!) and * The Devil's Own * at the Mankyeongwan (a flop…).

After coming to Seoul as a university student, I mainly frequented art house cinemas, such as Seoul Art Cinema, Cinecube, and Hypertek Nada . Around that time, local theaters were being taken over one by one by large corporate chains like Megabox and CGV, so even if I wanted to visit Hanil Theater to relive some memories, I couldn't. Mankyeongwan, the last remaining local theater in Daegu, was transformed into a multiplex named MMC Mankyeongwan and is now Lotte Cinema Mankyeong Branch. Mankyeongwan was a theater opened in 1922 by Korean businessman Lee Jae-pil. It is said to have been the first theater in the Yeongnam region built with Korean capital. Although it provided leisure entertainment for the people of Daegu for nearly 100 years, it made a lonely exit, leaving no particular memories or traces behind when it disappeared.

I was a boy who loved movies, so naturally, I often walked around the movie theaters. When I got tired of walking, I would sit on a park bench and read a book. Gyeongsang Gamyeong Park, located near Mankyeongwan, was a small park called Jungang Park when I was a child. Although it was in the same downtown area, it exuded a gloomy atmosphere completely different from the area around Dongseong-ro, and teenagers rarely visited. I recall middle-aged men with somber expressions drinking soju and smoking cigarettes in a corner of Jungang Park. There was even one man who would wave for me to come over when I was sitting on a bench reading. I don't remember what happened afterward. Only grainy impressions, like a black-and-white film, remain. Where have those men gone? Did they disappear along with Mankyeongwan and Jungang Park?

O-O Theater is located just a minute away from Lotte Cinema Mangyeong. It is literally three buildings away. Although it is much smaller in scale and screens a different variety of films than the former Mangyeongwan, visiting O-O Theater brings back memories of watching movies at Mangyeongwan. If Mangyeongwan was the first theater established in Daegu by Koreans, O-O Theater is the region's first theater dedicated exclusively to independent films. Around the autumn of 2020, I received an invitation from O-O Theater to give a lecture. The topic was writing film essays. That was the first time I learned of O-O Theater's existence.

I arrived a little early for the lecture and took a walk around the area. Recalling memories of strolling the streets of Mangyeongwan, I wandered around the streets of O-O Theater. I passed Gyeongsang Gamyeong Park and the Daegu Museum of Modern History, went down to Yakjeon Alley across the street, and returned towards Kwak Hospital. The streets and buildings, which used to look gloomy, now appeared completely different. Cafes and shops renovated by young people had sprung up between the old buildings, and an old gukbap restaurant in the Central Shopping District had become a famous eatery thanks to a YouTube broadcast, with people lining up.

Ooh Theater

Opened in 2015, it is the first regional theater dedicated to independent films in Korea. Named after its 55 seats, Oo Theater aims to be a 'community cinema' and is impressive for its cozy and lively atmosphere.

1st Floor, 537 Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu (Sudong)

@55cine

There was a café inside the O-O Theater as well. Its name was Sam-Sam . In other words, the O-O Theater is a place where people gather in small groups to drink coffee and watch movies. It is a place where movie-loving boys and girls of Daegu, as well as lonely college students, middle-aged people, and the elderly, can gather in small groups to chat and gaze at something together. How wonderful it would be if such things happened willingly, without prejudice or misunderstanding. Besides the Sam-Sam Café, there is another charming presence at the O-O Theater. It is a tabby cat that stealthily peeks its head out from beyond the wall or behind the chairs. Its name is Woo-sam . Just in case anyone doesn't know, Woo-sam is the director of the film *A Better Tomorrow*. The Mankyeongwan Theater screened *A Better Tomorrow* in 1987. French film director Jean-Luc Godard said: “The past never dies. It hasn’t even passed yet.”

Jeong Ji-don

Novelist Jeong Ji-don was born in Daegu in 1983. He left Daegu about 20 years ago and currently writes novels and essays based in Seoul. He began publishing novels after winning the *Literature and Society* New Writer's Award in 2013. His short story collections include *As I Fight*, *We Will Live in Others' Memories*, and *People Who Hate Jokes*; his novellas include *The Night Watchman's Diary*; his full-length novels include *Little Coward, Coward, New Party*, *Everything Was Eternal*, and *...Scroll!*; and his essay collections include *The Joy of Literature* (co-authored), *Film and Poetry*, and *For You, But Not Yours*. If there was the novelist Mr. Kubo who walked and contemplated cities in the 20th century, Jeong Ji-don is the "urban flâneur of the 21st century," often walking and strolling through cities around the world, touching upon something latent within the word "city."