In world where all films have disappeared, a man who used to be a film critic starts analyzing everything he lays his eyes on. ''Apocalypse Runner ''starts from this absurd premise. Director Cho Hyunmin builds upon the frame of the Revisionist Western and vacillates between various cinematic cliches and homages. Indeed, this kind of approach runs the risk of falling into the trap of cinematic fetishism. However, the film narrowly escapes from that danger through the self-conscious approach towards ‘a cinephile’s dilemma’. Cinephiles tend to see and interpret the world through the filter of cinema, and thus acquire an unrealistic sense of reality where cinema and reality get mixed up. When we place these qualities in the center of the film, the cinematic fetishism becomes not a weakness but a part of the director’s intended impact. [AHN Sihwan]