I’m an invited guest,
a fugitive seeking the way out
I’ve become a ghost forever haunting the house
The house that withstood blood and screams,
secrets and fire over a long history!
Bizarre mysteries hidden in the Japanese colonial mansion over four generations

 THE GHOST OF JAPANESE COLONIAL MANSION takes place in the Japanese occupation of Korea, where a Korean caretaker Jun-yeong loathes and curses Kanemoto, a wealthy Japanese merchant who settled down in Joseon, and his only son, Yutaka. As Jun-young struggles to survive in the colonized country, Kanemoto’s red-walled mansion symbolizes for him both the height of wealth and a resentful remnant of Japan. Jun-yeong thought Yutaka was harming himself only because his illness prevented his high-strung and violent personality otherwise. However, he later learns that Yutaka is actually Kanemoto’s adopted and exploited son, which makes him feel a compassionate bond with the Japanese man. The story then switches to the present day in the 2020s, where Jun-yeong’s great-granddaughter, Hyun Wun-ju (protagonist), is defenselessly exposed to the subtle violence of her husband, Wu Hyeong-min, who uses the marriage as an excuse to claim death benefits. The ghost of Yutaka, who has existed in the red-walled mansion for generations, appears in front of Wun-ju from time to time, and she thinks she is going crazy because of the spiteful specter. But in her dream, Wun-ju becomes her great-grandmother and learns Yutaka’s true identity. The ghost of him finally whispers to her the words that he has been harboring in his heart: “I’m the one who’s going to kill my father.” The novel depicts a family’s dark and devastating secrets and supernatural phenomena at a turbulent point in Korean history with Cho Yeeun’s unique rendition of horror.
In the author’s note, Cho writes, “The emotions that the dead have left unresolved in their lives don’t simply get reduced and remain the past but invade the present,” confessing her affection for the “nastiness and anguish” of the dead, who” reveal their presence only faintly in a despicable manner.” Just as the foreword (by Kim Cheong-gyul) put it, “the delicate beauty that shines even through the horror and strangeness, and the heart that makes people human” is what makes Cho’s novel “compelling to read to the end.”

 This novella certainly gives the reader the “one scene stays in [their] mind and makes [them] think of it for days after finish reading,” with a distinctly unforgettable and “chilling warmth.” It offers a supernatural reading experience transcending time and space, allowing readers to reflect on their lives “first as an invited guest in the colonial mansion, then a fugitive trapped in the mansion looking for a way out, and finally, a ghost forever haunting the mansion.”
“A house remembers all the history within its walls. Even after its inhabitants pass away, the house remains. Rather, through their death, they become part of the house forever. Unless it is demolished, a house continues to stand to hold someone’s life.”