This thesis argues that Faizullah established a subgenre of “panoramic paintings” at Awadh by incorporating pictorial idioms from mid-seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Mughal painting. Rather than perceiving his work primarily as shaped by European prints and technique, I contend that the zenana building (female quarters in elite households and palaces) in Faizullah’s compositions functions as a narrative apparatus, a space where literary imagination and physical reality are made to overlap simultaneously, and that this architectural logic allowed him to articulate a distinctly Awadhi cultural identity in dialogue with Mughal heritage.

All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream?
— Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream

No Other Choice was disappointing considering Park Chan-wook’s previous films, though the mise-en-scène was impressive.

I was working at the Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) when we hosted a screening for Goddess Era (여신시대) on March 19, 2026. While checking in guests, I explained to the audience that this documentary was about Jeju Island’s Haenyeo (women divers) and the spiritual aspect of their labor. When I entered the theater, however, I was confused: the film was nothing like what I had described. My initial thought was that I had misread the description—but I had not. The brochure clearly stated the film was about Haenyeo.

One of Ozu Yasujiro’s most acclaimed postwar masterpieces, Late Spring, seems to be all about marriage. The film opens with the sights of Kitakamakura Station, a suburban area of Tokyo where Professor Somiya and his daughter, Noriko, reside. Noriko, who views living with her father out of filial duty, finds herself under pressure from both her father and aunt to marry. Initially, Noriko’s father encourages her to consider his assistant Hattori, who unfortunately already has a fiancée. The focus then moves to the next prospect, a young man from Tokyo University named Satake. What is the meaning of marriage in this film, and how should we see it?