Lovers of the Empire

Yudori follows Raging Clouds with a lushly drawn, subtly observed love story set in occupied 1920s Korea. Jun Seomoon, the son of impoverished nobles, stoically works off his family’s debt to a nouveau riche department store owner. This requires living under the same roof as the wealthy commoner’s headstrong daughter, Arisa Jo, “the girl with the slimmest eyebrows” at their school. The two teenagers grow up in a world of rapid change, as Korea is torn by harsh Japanese colonial rule and the seduction of Western culture. Arisa embraces the future and chafes against old-fashioned expectations for Korean women, while Seomoon quails at his first escalator ride (“The stairs are moving!!!”), flinches at an on-screen movie kiss, and is appalled when he’s served steak Western-style: “Just a chunk of meat? What is this savagery?!” Seomoon is determined not to fall for the charms of a “modern girl” and tries to to take Arisa down a peg, criticizing her trendy taste for French novels and Japanese food, but she gives back as good as she gets, and the two grow closer in spite of themselves. Yudori’s stunning art has the retro appeal of 1920s East Asian pulp illustration combined with the elegance of classic printmaking. In softly glowing organic colors and decorative layouts framed by flowers and art nouveau patterns, she draws meticulous historical details, such as the journey a block of tofu takes from a street vendor to a lunch box. Fans of Pachinko will sink with pleasure into this opposites-attract romance. (June)