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English reviews
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8 f6 v/ g% [+ Q) d2 |! t"PEPPERMINT CANDY is a sweet-centered movie wrapped in a tart coating.A meditation on lost Innocence paralleing south korea's evolution over the past 20 yearsˇ film stil works, however, on a human level, thanks to excellent playing by all the leads."
/ u# B/ i# t5 b) G) s" b: L( a8 f- Derek Elley, VERIETY -
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. D) J6 o6 }8 I( s( ?"A Korean melodrama of virtuoso construction ˇ As the story goes along, what happens becomes more and more simple and paradoxically more and more moving ˇPEPPERMINT CANDY retraces over20 years the itinerary of Kim Yongho,a complex and multifaceted characterˇ PEPPERMINT CANDY is a beautiful melodrama unpolished(in the simplicity of its melodramatic effects.).The film sets up with much elegance this multi-layered pastry of reminiscences and tropisms. It mixes the virtues of a romance novel (a teardrop rolling down the cheeks of two lovers separated for decades seals a pact that life has not stopped straining) with political commentary (the police interrogation scence are of a stupefying brutality) and with poetic meditation."
+ \" a/ L0 d: J/ Y4 T3 C- Jean-Marc Lalanne, LIBERATION(France) - & O. ?% c! I w8 ]
% w$ Y) p) z+ p"For the spectator put in reverse, a certain indifference hovers over when found confronted with people and situations whose connections are not grasped at the moment they are seen, whose bonds are found always father upstreamˇ Beyond this frustration, PEPPERMINT CANDY spreads its caustic flavors well after it is seen."
. @3 q5 @$ }" D" M* i- Sophie Bonnet, LES INROCKUPTIBLES(France) - 5 z) J# @) X) y+ d/ c) K" B3 w
1 }9 U! o, g) ?1 v"a small masterpiece of emotion and narrative virtuosityˇ"
7 l% t+ s6 ]0 j1 L- Thierry Riviere, NICE-MATIN(France) - / v. J/ L' p7 ^5 v5 Y8 z
) ]% [0 r5 A4 d. D8 o"The film's strength lies in the progressive accumulation of tragedies, betrayals, liesˇ Emotion wins over gradually until the moment when the main character arrives at the end th the same place and discovers the place where he will die 20 years later.A sublime ending for the film where the character cries at foreseeing his futureˇ" # G0 v, G, k' o7 X3 N4 \$ F
"ˇ a force of impact respectful of the declared game of the genreˇ" v0 ^( [+ B# j# u
- Cristina Piccino, IL MANIFESTO(Italy) - 6 C0 ?. h4 S! p- a. E
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"ˇthe movie possesses all the exquisite qualities that made Korean art-house films such a hit on the festival circuit during the 1990sˇ cleverly uses political themes to comment on the human condition ˇ the chief focus here is psychological rather than historicalˇ" # J# v% w* n' x/ ]& E9 H- r6 k: \5 A
- Richard James Havis, MOVING PICTURES -
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+ o0 a% |7 E" K- @2 r" L2 J"For a second film, writer-director Lee Chang-Dong's PEPPERMINT CANDY shows an enviable maturity.His style is accomplished and the thought behind it is considerableˇ the longer you watch PEPPERMINT CANDY, the stronger it seems, helped along by excellent acting and musical score ˇ"
3 } R/ J' q5 _3 _6 r9 W# \) @- Derek Malcolm, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL -+ \+ o7 p6 G! ]7 z* [* C
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review by Tony Raynes
- v/ I! h& {- }9 ~1 k+ vMarch 10, 2001
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- Y8 z# q1 o2 C0 I- V# l: A7 y. jMeanwhile ex-novelist and screenwriter Lee Chang-Dong has followed his outstanding debut Green Fish/Chorok Madogki (1997) with the even more ambitious Peppermint Candy/ Bakka Sartang, which premiered in Pusan and goes on release in Korea as this is published. It spans 20 years in the life of one man, Yongho (Seol Gyeong-Gu, on the strengh of this performance and a couple of earlier supporting roles the most promising young actor in Korean cinema), from his callow teens to his fraught and self-hating middle age. His life of course serves as a barometer of the country's changing political, economic and social climate. - f. m! q! o8 P
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Called up for military service in 1980, soon after the assassination of the country's most dictatorial president Park Jeong-Hee, he has the misfortune to be part of the force sent to quell the popular uprising in Gwangju-Which means he is involved in the Korean equivalent of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Emotionally and psychologically blighted, he joins the police after leaving the army and becomes an expert in torturing arrested leftists. The scene in which he brutally rejects the childhood sweetheart who has come looking for him- bringing the candies of the title because he used to love them- has a force of emotional cruelty undreamed of by the likes of Arrabal and Jodorowsky. This and some other scenes are almost unbearably intense. ' w( Q+ c0 s- M
- ]5 u0 ?, `8 V7 l, K9 ~' K2 W2 hThe surprise is that the film's seven chapters are presented in reverse-chronological order, so it begins with Yongho's middle-aged death wish and ends with his first date with the only person he ever really cares for. Jane campion attempted something very similar in her television film a Friends, but her focus was narrower. Lee's orchestration of a wretched social history with the devastation of one man's psyche is uncompromising but also curiously uplifting. The film's release gets Korean cinema off to the strongest start in the year 2000. 8 x( i9 G. i, O, D
, ?1 `" o, ~+ F0 F, ?/ ](extracts from 'Sight and Sound')
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7 f9 j0 E; Z+ I/ n S/ {; hreview by Anthony Leong% |& h# z5 p( p/ W( G& o( K
March 07, 2002
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7 I n7 K$ a8 R- h" I. oSimilar to this year's mind-bending indie hit "Memento", the 2000 South Korean film "Peppermint Candy" starts at the end of the story, and gradually works its way back to the beginning. However, whereas "Memento" was a revenge thriller spanning a mere two weeks, the ambitious canvas of "Peppermint Candy" covers two decades of recent South Korean history, with its contemplative and poignant tale of innocence lost, echoing the social, political, and economic turmoil of a nation's arduous climb to democracy. Of all the films to have sprung from the recent renaissance in Korean cinema, "Peppermint Candy" is perhaps one of the more substantial ones, easily making this South Korean-Japanese co-production a modern classic.
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' J& }% p+ Y! ?The 'ending' of the story begins in the spring of 1999, where a group of former high school friends gather at a riverbank for a 20-year reunion picnic. A well-dressed but emotionally-erratic man wanders into the sedate setting, whom the picnickers recognize as Yongho (Sol Kyung-gu), a member that they had lost contact with long ago. Unfortunately, before they can catch up on old times, Yongho climbs onto a railroad bridge, seemingly with the intention to jump. In the last few seconds of his life, just before he is hit by an approaching train, Yongho defiantly declares, "I'm going back!"... , c) M8 X/ j! p6 _
0 y0 X- F7 L3 `5 p; B% C1 {! x... which he does, in a way, as the story jumps back three days before, filling in the holes as to who Yongho is and why he ends up killing himself. Unfortunately, Yongho is not in much better shape-- he has lost all his money to a stockbroker, he is heavily in debt with a loan shark, and his wife has left him. With his last bit of savings, he has purchased a handgun to put himself out of his own misery. However, before he can do so, he learns that his first true love, Sunim (Mun So-ri), is on her deathbed, and he has been asked to see her one last time.
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The story then continues to jump back through time, gradually revealing more about Yongho, his relationship with Sunim, and the circumstances that end up unraveling the tapestry of his life. As the story moves back through Yongho's life, director Lee Chang-dong segues each segment with film of a train moving backwards. In addition, the action of each segment prominently features railroad tracks and a passing train, emphasizing that each of these vignettes comprise the same thread of history, permanently linking Yongho's past with his destiny. 7 M$ a, _( b* S3 R
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The next stop is 1994, where we find Yongho juggling his small business, his unhappy marriage to Hongja (Kim Yejin of "Girls' Night Out"), and an affair with his one of his employees. A chance meeting in a restaurant, where Yongho runs into a figure from his past, then leads into the film's next sequence, set in 1987. In this time period, Yongho is a policeman who is willing to use any means necessary, including torture, to extract confessions from government dissidents. In addition, Hongja is pregnant with their daughter, and it is already apparent that the seeds for the marriage's dissolution have already been sown. When we catch up with Yongho in 1984, he is a rookie cop who ends up being traumatized when he beats his first confession out of a suspect. But the defining moment for Yongho comes in 1980, when as a soldier, his unit is called on to quell a civil disturbance and he ends up accidentally shooting an innocent bystander.
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7 d. b$ o# ^7 I' B/ p4 Y G" wWhen the film reaches its end at the beginning of the story, the year is 1979 and the setting is the same riverbank seen at the beginning of the film. The picnickers are twenty years younger, and among them are Yongho, a young man full of hope and innocence who aspires to be a photographer one day, and the love of his life, Sunim. Unfortunately, because of what has come before this, we know that none of his dreams will come true, the love of his life will slip through his fingers, and he will end up a tragic figure, lonely and heartbroken on the same riverbank twenty years later.
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& H- |3 H( u5 M, [- T! a( [: MIn many respects, "Peppermint Candy" has much in common with "Forrest Gump". Similar to how the titular protagonist of the 1994 Robert Zemeckis film was a stand-in for the American people and his adventures through history reflecting the experiences of the Baby Boomer generation, Yongho is a stand-in for the South Korean people, with his degradation and despair a reflection of the country's long uphill climb towards democracy.
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The most important turning point in the development of Yongho's character, when he accidentally shoots a student on her way home, is set against the backdrop of the Kwangju Massacre. This important landmark in the South Korean democratic movement, in which a clash between government troops and student pro-democracy demonstrators resulted in 200 dead (mostly civilians), was a specter that would haunt Korean politics for the next two decades, and ultimately result in the arrest and imprisonment of two former South Korean presidents. Furthermore, the Kwangju Massacre also triggered the rise of anti-American sentiment, as the Reagan administration had strongly endorsed the use of force in quelling the riot. 4 s, n8 i' J2 p4 R; C! N2 P! t" G- Z9 ]
2 N- B/ H1 i2 r9 X0 ODuring much of the Eighties, we see Yongho's character being hardened by the brutal tactics employed by the police. Similarly, the Eighties were a turbulent period for South Korea under the leadership of General Chun Doo Hwan, whose iron-fisted regime kept the country in a state of martial law and blocked all efforts towards constitutional reform. Finally, in the Nineties, we see a battle-scarred Yongho initially riding the wave of economic expansion brought about by the new constitution of 1988, only to come crashing down during the economic crisis of 1997, when investors abandoned the debt-ridden South Korean economy, the currency rapidly depreciated, and the country was ravaged by soaring unemployment and bankruptcies. 4 Q5 G7 i6 Q- z; a% |" v$ I) e
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However, even if one does not have a passing knowledge of South Korean politics, "Peppermint Candy" is still a compelling film with its stirring portrayal of a man's disintegration. With his moving portrayal of Yongho, Sol exhibits tremendous dramatic range, from the film's opening scenes, as an unsympathetic and volatile boor, to the very end, as a poignant and tragic figure whose dreams will never come true. Given his unsavory introduction, as well as a number of scenes that underscore his volatility (such as how his temper ruins a celebratory get-together with friends), there is a constant threat of Yongho exploding in violence at any time, which adds an added level of tension to the film.
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& s& \2 y6 z2 S+ @. ?+ j0 uUnfortunately, this cinematic gem has not seen wide distribution outside of South Korea, other than brief appearances at the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and the New York New Directors/New Films Festival. However, thanks to the advent of the Internet, "Peppermint Candy" is available through an import DVD, complete with English subtitles.
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Regardless of whether "Peppermint Candy" is viewed from a personal or political angle, there is little doubt that director Lee Chang Dong has created a modern masterpiece. With a judiciously-applied narrative structure and the brooding performance of Sol Kyung-gu, "Peppermint Candy" is a bittersweet confection that illustrates how the innocence and optimism of youth can end up crushed under the relentless march of time, the travails of happenstance, and the frailties of the human heart.
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[. F! a7 ]+ f% e/ f# v5 H `6 D. IA Life Retreats From Tragedy to Happy Beginnings # J* D3 e: O: L( O: v+ Q
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review by A. O. Scott (New York Times), {" J% F8 ]( d
March 31, 2001
, h) `2 [7 I* w. ?+ jAt the beginning of Lee Chang Dong's "Peppermint Candy" a well- dressed man, possibly drunk and visibly distressed, stumbles into the reunion picnic of a group of men and women who had worked together in a factory 20 years before. They remember him from the old days, but he seems to have fallen out of touch. After alarming the group with his erratic behavior, the man, whose name is Yongho (Sol Kyung Gu), climbs a nearby railroad bridge and, as the train approaches, screams into the camera, "I want to go back."
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5 P3 o4 b7 {/ uThe film, which will be shown tonight and tomorrow at the New Directors/New Films festival, grants Yongho's wish, vaulting backward across 20 years of South Korean history to track his dissolution in reverse. The movie ends where it began: at the same riverbank in 1979, where the young factory workers, their lives still ahead of them, sing songs and prepare a picnic. Yongho, a tall, shy 20-year-old, shyly tells his sweetheart, Sunim (Moon So Ri), about his dreams of the future, none of which, we know by now, will come true.
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$ R+ j, G, ]. {: iThe end has a quiet, heartbreaking power because the audience knows what the young man does not: that in the next two decades he will drift from youthful optimism into brutal, callous manhood and cynical, ultimately despairing middle age. The film's seven sections are punctuated by images shot from the front of a moving train and shown in reverse motion, to suggest a life backing away from its destination toward its starting point. The chapters of Yongho's life make sense only in relation to one another. The awkwardness of a chance encounter in a restaurant in the early 90's is retroactively explained by a brutal police interrogation in the previous decade.
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Yongho, who is the interrogator in that scene, is both thoroughly unsympathetic and pointedly ordinary, a man whose sins are egoism and conformity. Before failing as a husband and as a businessman he had some modest success as a police officer, beating up student dissidents and labor leaders. Later in life (and early in the film), he is consumed by longing for his Sunim, but unable either to express his love for her or to find any tenderness for Hongja (Kim Yeo Jin), the tea shop waitress he eventually marries.
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That there is a political dimension to Yongho's malaise is evident, but also, for one not intimately familiar with recent South Korean history, hard to grasp. The defining crisis of Yongho's life comes during a tense military mobilization. Only by consulting the film's press notes after the fact did I learn that the scene takes place during the 1980 Kwangju massacre, a watershed moment in South Korea's long and difficult transition to democracy.
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) z1 b* P9 r7 R/ I- ]' cBut if some of the force of Mr. Lee's film may be lost on non-Korean audiences, the artful assurance of his directing and the brooding charisma of Mr. Sol's performance will not be. The immediate source of Yongho's anguish may lie in a specific series of national traumas, but the anguish itself-the feeling of a life gone incomprehensibly wrong, of events that overwhelm the capacity to understand them-is a painfully familiar modern malady.
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review by Lee Marshall (Screen International)& f) _) }' G/ w) R/ |3 w
September 15, 2003
$ w! [ G9 X7 i- y8 ySouth Korean cinema is in fine form, if its recent Cannes presence is anything to go by. Of the three South Korean films at the festival, the Directors’ Fortnight selection, Peppermint Candy, was the most obviously commercial - something confirmed by a long run back home, where the film opened in December.
) ]( i) ]: |1 k4 DAn overlong but oddly magnetic melodrama, Peppermint Candy excels in its main aim: using scenes from a life to build a convincing portrait of a complex, ordinary, not particularly likeable man. The scenes run backwards in time from the tragic end - an unusual device that requires quite a lot of patience from the audience at first. ! B3 Y U n9 e( _; l6 w3 ]
Given the film’s structure, it’s no big deal to give the beginning/end away: a workers’ reunion picnic by the banks of a river is ruined when one of the colleagues - the tired and emotional Yongho - throws himself under a train.From here on in, the film traces the life that has led to this gesture. 8 m$ ~! `2 |2 l
Yongho visits the teenage sweetheart he spurned on her deathbed; next, we see him returning to the shack he has lived in since he lost his job, where the husband of the same woman tells him that she is dying and would like to see him.
H5 K' f% M4 |3 X) W: O0 C7 vIt sounds like one long spoiler, but the dramatic suspense works backwards: knowing what happened next, we want to know how Yongho got to this state, and gradually the interest of a multi-layered character portrayal takes over from simple plot curiosity.It’s difficult to say how differently Peppermint Candy would come across if re-edited to run chronologically; quite possibly, the sentimental excesses - stressed by some theatrical night-lighting and the tendency of the main character to weep uncontrollably when things go wrong, as they usually do - would seem merely over the top. 5 W/ ^$ x" c, G% N7 c1 ~3 n
There are moments of humour and moments of tenderness along the way, especially touching when see marital breakdown followed inexorably by the courtship that preceded it.
5 C9 b3 n. r1 dThough this is a film of some substance, it will not be easy to market abroad, where its commercial ambitions will be shackled by subtitles and by the difficult-to-shift perception that any South Korean film released in the West must be strictly arthouse.& L7 ^& ?( _# B& }9 o G7 w
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% p$ t: e$ f/ d# FAs one of the most anticipated films of the year, Peppermint Candy, the second feature from acclaimed director Lee Chang-dong, was chosen to be the opening film of the 1999 Pusan International Film Festival. Some people viewed this as a coming of age: both for Lee, the novelist-turned-director whose debut feature Green Fish (1997) took home the top prize from the Vancouver International Film Festival; and for Korean cinema in general, since this was the first time in PIFF's four-year history that a domestic film was chosen for this honor.
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: V) p0 ~2 l# Q L6 O6 e5 c The festival opened with fireworks, speeches, and a bit of rain, and when the film began to roll it clashed somewhat with the festive atmosphere. Peppermint Candy is the personal history of a man whose troubled experiences leave him greatly disturbed. The film asks of its viewers a fair amount of concentration and emotional energy; some scenes are upsetting, while others give us mere hints of beauty: the undeveloped potential that lies dormant within our hero.
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6 M% q- ]) y& j. P; c) [4 oThe narrative structure of Peppermint Candy shares much in common with an early Jane Campion film, Two Friends, in that we first witness a tragedy, and then progress backwards in time to learn the events which led up to it. The film contains seven episodes from our hero's life, each of which reveal him in a different stage of development. These segments are linked by a series of shots taken from the back of a train, as if to suggest that the train itself leads us back into his past.
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( X1 h- D1 H: _# yMany of the episodes in our hero's life echo the contemporary history of Korea: serving in the military, torturing political dissidents as a policeman, and losing money in a failed business venture. These symbolic events mingle with the personal aspects of his life: an early love affair, which continues to haunt him years later, and his subsequent failed marriage.
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+ ~8 P7 u% | r iUltimately the main character remains out of our grasp. Lee denies us any easy explanations for our hero's character, or excuses for his behavior. The film frustrated me as I was watching it for the first time; I wanted greater access to the hero's feelings. Nonetheless, I felt shattered upon reaching the end of the film, and it has beckoned me back for a second viewing. (Darcy Paquet)5 Q2 P0 E5 i! {. a6 z
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. [0 @. |1 Z' u3 Q Jeong Kang Sat Oct-06-01 02:33 PM . h7 p# k8 q4 K' l
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#1256, "questions about Peppermint Candy"
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/ [# _/ ~. {. ?( t) b4 A I just saw Peppermint Candy and I've read as many reviews I could find about it, but there are a few scenes that I still could not interpret.
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# m6 u# [! @6 Z7 p+ y! c9 X, ~Like the third from last chapter, where the protagonist is talking to his first girlfriend/love in the restaurant, and he lewdly feels up the waittress (his wife right?). What do the protagonist and his first love talk about? Why is he so rude in front of her if he loves her?
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( c8 C) _' D" Y5 oIn the second to last scene, the 1980 military one, Kwangju right? Who is that girl who follows him in the dark and what is she talking to him about? Did he shoot her on accident or feel pressured to when his fellow soldiers started coming? And what happened to his leg? His boot is filled with blood. I get the symbolic meaning of injury to his leg and character, but was he shot? " d* i9 i# i, G: x5 x
7 d9 U( j6 ^8 DOh, and the other scene where he is torturing that prisoner and puts his hand in his rear? Is this just cruel police interrogation?
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I've watched the movie back and forth a few times and these scenes still puzzle me.
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: B! Z2 @& T( K" S5 gAmongst many things, Peppermint Candy is about memory and challenging direct cause/effect. Alot of what the main character does is confusing simply because he lives in a chaotic time. We can't say really why he feels up the waitress in front of his first love. We know this guy's been hurting for sometime, and, often when we are hurting, we choose to hurt others. It doesn't necessarily make sense, but often we don't make much sense.& {4 L; `! T1 U% j& ^5 o
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As for putting his hand in the prisoner's rear, this is terrorist/dictator procedure. The intent was not to protect the public but to impose fear and dread in the opposition. What we are witnessing in that scene are terrorist-type interrogation procedures that are sadly still practiced throughout the world. Our main character is reluctant at first, but a dam is eventually broken. Once such a dam is broken, it's difficult to turn back across the bridge we've crossed.& _, K7 W/ y* }6 E
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I don't remember enough about the Kwangju scene, nor the Kwangju Massacre to really feel comfortable talking about it. However, part of what we witness is a person's reaction to the horror they've witnessed and perpetrated. Hallucinations/Paranoia are a rational response to an irrational environment.' Q" L* k; Q: X/ i8 m; g0 k
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Like Momento, a film that similarly addresses the suspect of our memories, we think we have a grasp of the WHY through each scene, but then something in the next scene, which is the scene before, makes us question that. I found myself thinking Bad Lieutenant immediately while watching this JERK on film. But w/ each scene before placed after, I'm shown this person is more complicated than simply being evil/mean/jerky. The history of Korea is complex, and so is our main character and every action they make.
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I may not have answered the questions here, but I feel the film is showing me that some of our questions can't be answered.
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Adam0 F8 t. o/ x7 V4 D6 j2 a
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1 j- a5 g1 n5 x; `' ~4 z; Y6 v( W Jeong Kang
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* m+ t/ [/ C, B: \- S! ?( d Thanks for the reply, Adam.
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2 C2 ^/ I2 d2 ^& PI suspect that he was feeling up the waitress in the restaurant because that was his wife and he was trying to make his first love jealous. But I am wondering what the two of them talked about at that table. $ |+ _/ v$ k j) n2 @) _; t
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And what he talked about with that young girl in the 1980 military Kwangju chapter.
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I actually watched the film from beginning to end and then watched it from end to beginning. I know there's a big historical context (I'm still learning my Korean history) akin to "Forrest Gump" but on a personal level I couldn't help but feel sorry for him and the poor choices in his life and realization of that in the end. # j) l3 @7 L- b; A! a P5 i
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Another American movie this reminded me of was Falling Down in a way. * J) S+ M9 k5 ^; K9 N2 K) F) q% [
5 M, N W! e- O" A- j4 |- tProud half-Korean,: v3 O+ O9 A6 g# c4 q. Q" S
Jeong Kang
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Falling Down is a good film to bring up because both present the ANTI-Hero. I think the difference is that in FD I don't find myself aligning w/ the character at all, whereas in PC, I slowly open up to the main character and realize the limited choices he had available to him, that is, if he made other choices, he may be dead. However, the character did have other choices, as limited as they were, that could have provided more joy in his life.
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, Z* P0 d9 @% S# wI asked LEE Chang-Dong to sign my program after watching his film, just as I had Green Fish two years prior, when he was surprised a White Boy knew who the heck he was. Along w/ his signature, he wrote "Life Is Beautiful!", a theme he mentioned throughout his question/answer session after the film. It says a lot about Lee in creating such somber, heavy works as Green Fish and Peppermint Candy, that he still notes the beauty in life.
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6 [) W4 V+ h% l, \" l, S I hope my review doesn't sound like every other you've read. I describe this film as Forrest Gump's dysfunctional brother. It's a look back at Korea's modern history as experienced through the life of our character and how it has effected him. He's a partaker in all the major events that shaped the nation and the person he's become is effected/damaged/shaped by what he's seen, heard, done.
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It was very disturbing to watch and I wanted to get through it quickly. It's a film that I think many Koreans are almost ashamed to have viewed by non-Koreans. Maybe that's why I don't remember all the scenes so well.' k9 x7 P$ Z- V( O6 ~1 Y9 f
) m1 y: z( K+ N3 U/ D6 \I don't remember what they talk about in the restaurant about but if I'm correct, I don't think they discuss their past relationship so much. There's a longing for old times yet it never comes up. Perhaps this heightened his frustrations and led to him to act the way he did, hurting the girl he used to (still does?)love. This is only a guess b/c there's no real answer to why he does the things he does. " j5 x M. t2 A/ L' n
7 s5 T* t* a- N. W0 l+ VIn the shooting scene, again, my memory is very cloudy but, here goes The girl is going home and she's not supposed to be in the streets so he doesn't know what to do at first and then tells her to go home. His shooting is accidental but this has damaged him forever.; S7 ~& Y0 c' Z/ k
5 H, o7 b) ]% e6 u" [- f8 {In the torture scene, it's typical police brutality. 9 ^. g9 o$ D% ?2 m; Z6 f9 p6 O. u
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Hope this helps.) ^+ B* J% [! n" l8 s
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1 q4 J9 T4 [5 C7 s8 M>In the second to last scene, ( w/ i0 L# t& K
>the 1980 military one, Kwangju
; t8 ]- h% H' u8 P3 u4 v7 d>right? Who is that + n5 Z( v' R6 J2 D0 e, @
>girl who follows him in
- B0 D7 ^$ E0 L>the dark and what is
: U w9 X% V' g( I>she talking to him about?
/ C, Q# h. `, Q> Did he shoot her
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>to when his fellow soldiers
0 H1 u0 k( J2 Q# V* o' B1 G>started coming? And what
# ?' y( h( D% p, }0 Z5 u9 `>happened to his leg? ) ~5 T3 C6 Z0 u) Y3 G; X6 n
>His boot is filled with
1 S; x6 `, j+ s( w/ G>blood. I get the
( u* H! e* V6 u( ]9 F: e& Q7 j>symbolic meaning of injury to
0 a' c' [! Y% q>his leg and character, but 5 O/ X1 G w {3 } c" K
>was he shot? 0 x' H# B5 |7 H7 I3 p* v2 x
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i think you are talking about the kwangju massacre where soldiers were sent out to quell student unrest, resulting in hundreds of deaths. as he and his fellow soldiers chase after student rioters, a bullet pierces his leg, perhaps shot by a student, perhaps ricocheted bullet from another soldier's gun. unable to walk, he's left behind and must wait for help. panicked, fearful, nearly hysterical, he suddenly realizes there is a girl hiding in the shadows nearby. she begs him to let her go. she isn't a student, she says, but was trying to get home when she was caught up in the riot. he realizes her innocence and tells her to run home. she's paralyzed by fear and does not move. they both hear more soldiers coming. he shouts at her to run, but she can't move for fear. he shoots off his gun to scare her off, but instead in a panic accidentally shoots and kills her.; j) ~' _; s0 L! \
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>Like the third from last chapter, 5 S+ }8 i" K; `- Z' J9 m
>where the protagonist is talking 4 ]' Z, W9 m; X) v h5 d) k
>to his first girlfriend/love in 3 F/ D2 J; b4 a# F4 N
>the restaurant, and he lewdly % s7 `3 q7 R1 h/ r {6 D
>feels up the waittress (his
: n3 Q& \ v9 b: v* f; ~7 n0 m>wife right?). What do $ }, e' }0 ]$ C: O3 ^- G9 n
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>love talk about? Why ) I4 H ^' A5 a7 Q* x9 ]
>is he so rude in
+ g1 k1 f8 P+ W4 T, R9 E! |>front of her if he
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' E% T- B( g' n5 h- r6 Y5 }it seemed to me that his love for his first girlfriend was innocent and naive. accidentally killing a girl while a soldier was a crossroads in his life that radically changed him. he loses his innocence and begins his self-hatred. his first girlfriend tracks him down after he is released from the army, wondering what had happened to him. he rebuffs her interest rudely. in tears by the rejection, his first girlfriend mentioned his beautiful hands. and he sneers at her, hating his hands, the hands that performed the murder, hands that are impure, polluted and evil to him. because he hates himself and what he's done, he rejects his first love, in self-hatred and has a form of punishment and perhaps to spare her of himself. he may feel he no longer can love or deserves love. he pushes her away by feeling up the waitress. thus begins his downward descent.
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at least, it seemed that way to me.% _. {9 h9 ~6 {/ j5 E, \
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Comments index for Peppermint Candy% i9 ~9 a( V6 ~# w6 U! C. f( |- m
, N2 ]) L5 C8 { I# k& eJohnTrucker ) F9 q: a9 k. |& A- O. K
Montreal, Canada( X% x# f9 m% E5 l+ @3 B
3 V8 t% J4 j1 b& T7 m% ^Date: 23 December 20031 S7 Q5 V/ z, R8 j5 ?" W5 y
Summary: A tale of a man's destruction- S7 U. Y( w1 j. o, x1 w# z& u
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A young man is drafted into South Korea's army, where he is forced to suppress student demonstrations. A stint in the police has him beating confessions out of suspects. Upon leaving the cop job, this wrecked, embittered soul fails as a businessman and a husband.
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All of this is contrasted with the hero as a young and naive man who will never imagine what he will be made to become by a brutal, corrupt "system".' I1 q. Y( A' ?# i
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A very solid 8/10. " `% K; b& D- O' l! K! s0 j2 c3 _, A) g
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tomatoesaresquishy / S% j' u5 z* K7 Q: P
San Diego
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Date: 14 October 2003* P( B7 B) B4 I; u
Summary: Incredible* ]; n6 z7 P& j0 o! p9 i/ i4 g
' ]6 Z8 p2 I7 R- e5 d5 y( M: Y8 u4 O0 [I saw this movie in a college class, and it's possible to have an entire lecture on it. Unfortunately, my professor only had about twenty minutes, though I'm sure he would've loved a couple hours.: j$ q" X) J# K) h q! `
8 x% ]# O/ F& s! `; c0 ~8 G: q0 zGranted, the subtitles weren't the greatest. Being Korean, I had a much easier time understanding everything, because if there was something I couldn't quite understand in Korean, I had the subtitles to help me along.$ }4 X7 r; }5 v5 ^6 D) V
) n+ [3 ~8 Y' B2 h) j D0 BTo paraphrase my professor, this movie isn't just about the story of one man, but how this one man's life signifies the past fifty years of Korean history as well, a people subject to the influences of forces greater than they.
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To give a quick Korean history lesson, for the first half of the century, the Koreans were brutally subjugated by the Japanese, who not only wanted to colonize it, but to assimilate the people and culture completely into their own. Then came WW2, and following that, the start of the Cold War conflicts, beginning of course with the Korean War, where brother fought brother and a people was torn apart.
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The second half of the century, following the Korean War, has been defined by dictatorships, as the oppressive Korean government put down democratic student movements, as seen in part of the film. It is only recently that true democracy has begun to form and strengthen.
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The main character of the movie is shown in the beginning, a ruined man, and one can assume from following sequences, shown in backwards chronological order, that he is an evil and corrupt man. However, the purpose of the movie is to show how he was corrupted by larger forces, mirroring the Korean people's own search for their lost innocence. It is in the seemingly mundane scenes of his life that we see how trite and ordinary violence and depravity have become, yet we also travel back to see where every part of him came from.
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3 G8 P$ K8 D5 M, W, OI'm sure I could say a lot more, but basically it's about a lot more than the story of one man, and the seemingly irrelevant stories of his life signify more about both him and the Korean people as a whole. Terrific movie. ! t3 V7 n6 O- Z* j
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发表于 2004-7-5 14:44
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发表于 2006-2-7 17:06