Goblin | Woljeongsa Fir Forest — The Path She Tried to Leave

The approach to Woljeongsa is a kilometre of fir. The trunks go up until the canopy turns the afternoon into a green dusk. The path is packed earth and boardwalk. You hear the stream before you see the first temple roof.

In episode nine Ji Eun-tak walks this line through Odaesan and tries to outrun a fate she has only just understood. Kim Shin follows at a distance the trees make look like mercy. The temple sits at 374-8 Odaesan-ro, Jinbu-myeon, Pyeongchang. The forest path is public. The halls ask for the usual quiet. Snow makes the scene the cameras wanted. Autumn does the same work in a different key.

Do not rush the last two hundred metres. The firs are the reason the scene holds. When the octagonal nine-storey pagoda comes into view you have left the corridor. Turn once before you enter the yard. The path behind you is still doing what it did for her: holding a person who has somewhere she does not want to go.

Photo: Woljeongsa and the Odaesan fir approach, Pyeongchang.