A radiant spring at the end of a long winter! Three years after her acclaimed work I Am a Dog, author Baek Heena returns with a new picture book that reimagines the beloved Korean folktale 'Yeon-i and the Willow Prince' through her own unique lens. In the traditional tale, the stepdaughter Yeon-i meets the superhuman helper Willow Prince, overcomes the trials set by her stepmother, and finally wins happiness. But Baek Heena's version reworks even the relationships between the characters from the very start. For one, the stepmother in the old tale is simply referred to here as 'the older woman' — someone who could be a biological mother going through menopause, an older generation seeking to control the younger one, or simply an aging woman envious of youth. Yeon-i, once utterly obedient and passive toward the older woman's commands, begins to change only after she meets Willow Prince. Sneaking out of the house just to see him is something the old Yeon-i could never have imagined. Yeon-i and Willow Prince, in fact, appear to be the same person, differing only in appearance — they even share the same face. This is because Willow Prince represents Yeon-i's animus, the masculine aspect residing within a woman's unconscious. By portraying Yeon-i and Willow Prince as the same individual differing only in gender, the author brings entirely new meaning to the old story. It's also striking that Willow Prince, despite being a magical being capable of scattering willow leaves to bring forth lettuce and azaleas, is a gentle boy who personally prepares a warm meal for Yeon-i, who has been cold and hungry all day. The immature, passive feminine self that is Yeon-i meets her animus, Willow Prince, deep within her inner cave, and in overcoming the older woman's control and oppression, is reborn as a more mature, self-directed being. Baek Heena reinterprets this widely known stepmother folktale — found in cultures around the world — as a universal journey of self-integration and growth that everyone must go through. Furthermore, this story carries a message of hope for all of us living through the long winter of the pandemic: that within each of us lies a rich inner cave that can help us endure this winter, and that we will emerge from it as more mature beings, ready to welcome a new spring. A Culmination of Baek Heena's Signature 3D Illustration Technique Baek Heena has built a distinctive artistic world using a 3D illustration technique in which she creates and photographs characters and sets by hand, using materials such as paper, cloth, and Sculpey clay. Yeon-i and the Willow Prince represents the culmination of the many techniques she has developed throughout her career. Yeon-i, Willow Prince, and the older woman were all crafted using traditional Korean mulberry paper dolls (dakjongi), the same delicate technique that drew acclaim in The Red Bean Porridge Grandma and the Tiger. Yeon-i's face, made from this handmade paper, appears soft with downy fuzz, yet also seems chapped by the cold — at times so poignant you want to reach out and comfort her, at other times so sly you want to give her a gentle tap on the head. As the author herself has noted, it's difficult to capture the essence of a child's face, untouched by the marks of time. And yet, the faces of Yeon-i and Willow Prince perfectly capture that awkward, in-between feeling of children just entering adolescence. The older woman's face needs no further explanation — her sunken eyes, high cheekbones, large bulbous nose, and deep smile lines vividly convey the weathered, irritable nature of a middle-aged woman going through menopause. As in Fox Bath House, the scenery surrounding the village where Yeon-i and the older woman live was created by photographing the handmade figures placed in real outdoor landscapes. The scenes of Yeon-i and the older woman walking through the snow were filmed on location during actual snowfall, at places ranging from Mount Gariwang in Jeongseon to Namsan and Baeksasil Valley in Seoul, and Mount Hwangnyong in Ilsan. The house where the two live was built as a near life-sized three-dimensional set, handcrafted just as in the author's previous works. In contrast, the cave where Willow Prince lives was designed like a stage set, using cut-out paper objects painted in traditional Korean ink-and-color style (hanguk-hwa) and mounted like theatrical props. As briefly shown in a JTBC documentary, the cave scenes take full advantage of the soft, glowing quality of hanji (Korean mulberry paper) when lit from behind, creating a magical, dreamlike atmosphere.