Spectral Forensics: The Haunted Spaces of Gina Kim’s <scp>vr</scp> Film Trilogy

Gina Kim’s 3D immersive vr trilogy—Bloodless (2017), Tearless (2020), and Comfortless (2023)—traces the twin legacy of “comfort women” and u.s. militaristic settler imperialism in South Korea by drawing attention to the presence of sex workers who have often been disregarded, dismissed, or simply treated as a national embarrassment. While the signs of the women’s presence are omnipresent in Kim’s vr films, the women featured appear only as ghosts. Through the spectral gaze, the films produce an acute sense of trauma for the viewer, who experiences a sensation of being trapped in a space that is closing in and a feeling of being disembodied. Rather than attempt to make a case for identifying with ghosts or being able to feel their trauma, this essay considers how the sense of being immersed within such uncanny spaces produces its own sense of distance and proximity, a critical as well as an emotional understanding that does not rely on the creation of any form of individual subjectivity.