Peppermint Candy (1999)

Year: 1999 Director: Lee Chang-Dong Language: Korean with English subtitles Country: South Korea Runtime: 120 min Rating: M18 4K RESTORATION Synopsis Young-ho (Sol Kyung-gu) is a broken and depressed man who decides to end his life by standing in front of a moving train. Following this time moves in reverse as we witness six chapters in his life which led him to this decision. In a backwards spiral we see him as an investor who loses a fortune in the stock market, a corrupt police officer, a soldier and an idealistic student. A breakthrough in Lee Chang-dong’s career, Peppermint Candy established Lee as the premier poet of modern Korean misery. Melding historiography and psychoanalysis, Lee traces the 20 years of South Korean history leading up to the new millennium, highlighting formative events from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis to the 1980 Gwangju Massacre, which irrevocably change Young-ho. Every detail adds up to form a portrait of a man whose spirit is thoroughly crushed by the increasing difficulties of modern life.