User Reviews

Well, this was not easy to track down on DVD but I finally found a copy of this via the Korean Lee Chang-Dong box set, which also includes the outstanding Oasis and brilliant Greenfish. All three movies are spectacularly good, in fact, I rated all three 10/10 but Peppermint Candy deserves 11/10 on that scale.

Technically the acting, direction, script, music, cinematography, etc were all exceptional, but the story itself was simply devastating.

Starting at the end with Yongho's suicide, the film then plays backwards over the last 20 years of his life showing how he got to the point of taking his life. It unravels the secrets of all aspects of his life, from career, family, relationships, his mistakes, his misfortunes. And it dies so in a shockingly ordinary way. There is no single incident that pushes him over the edge, but a build up of tensions and unresolved issues that gradually wear him down. Just like real life.

Quite simply this film is going straight into my all-time top ten, after one viewing. It is that good. If you get a chance to see this film - do so. It is simply Perfect!

I read that Lee Chang-dong is now the Cultural Minister for Sth Korea, which I'm sure is a great thing, but let's hope he goes back to directing at some point, as his 3 films so far are all exceptional, and a rare talent like his would be sorely missed if he does not come back to film making in the future.

South Korean director Lee Chang-dong's achingly poignant Peppermint Candy chronicles the loss of innocence of a young man, Yong-ho (Sol Kyung-gu) that mirrors the decline of his country during the period of military rule in the 80s and 90s. Like Hou Hsiao-hsien's eloquent City of Sadness which dramatized the February 28th (1947) massacre in Taiwan, Peppermint Candy brings to light the Kwangju massacre of 1980 in which massive student-led demonstrations in Kwangju, South Korea protesting the imposition of martial law resulted in the death of hundreds and possibly thousands of people. Though the demonstrations were brutally crushed with the acquiescence of the U.S. government, the incident is now recognized as a milestone in the struggle for democracy in Asia.

Named after a treat provided by Yong-ho's first love Sun-im (Mun So-ri), the film opens in 1999 in a park-like setting adjacent to a railroad bridge. A group of friends have gathered to celebrate a 20-year reunion and express surprise when they see an old friend who has come uninvited. Dressed in a gray business suit and now in his forties, Yong-ho looks disheveled and seems to be drunk or on drugs. At first congenial then suddenly belligerent, he grabs the microphone and engages in a karaoke song, then, after walking into the water fully clothed, climbs onto a railroad track on the bridge and awaits his fate screaming, "I'm going back".

As if Yong-ho is now looking back at his life from beyond the grave, the film unfolds in reverse chronology over a twenty year period as we witness the crucial events in the man's life that have led him to his present state. Each of the seven periods is separated by the poetic image of a train running backwards. We learn that three days ago Yong-ho was living in a run down shack, a victim of the economic crisis that spurred high bankruptcy and suicide rates throughout Asia in 1999. He has lost all of his money because of the betrayal of his business partner and the collapse of the stock market. With his last bit of cash, he buys a gun and expresses the wish to die and to take those people along with him who have made his life a torment.

When the husband of his former girlfriend, Sun-im, visits to tell him that she is dying, however, and asks him to see her in the hospital, his plans are put on hold. The scene then shifts to 1994 when Yong-ho was a small businessman taking advantage of the thriving Korean economy, and married to Hong-ja (Kim Yeo-Jin) in a marriage that seems devoid of love. Though Hong-ja is pregnant and the birth of his daughter is imminent, the increasingly unpleasant Yong-ho refuses to accompany her to the hospital and continues an affair with an office employee that foretells the breakup of his marriage. During this segment, Yong-ho runs into a man at a restaurant who recognizes him from the past but it is only when we go back further to 1987 do we learn that the man in the restaurant was a student who Yong-ho, then a policeman, brutally beat and tortured to extract a confession.

In 1984, Yong-ho is a police officer just learning his trade as he watches fellow officers sadistically beat prisoners. One of the officers tells the recruit that he will never forget the smell, a metaphor that could apply to the odor of military dictatorship running the country. The moment of truth, however, comes in 1980 during the demonstrations at Kwangju when Yong-ho, in a moment of weakness, takes an action against a student that will cause him guilt and regret for the rest of his life. Sol Kyung-gu's performance through shifts in time and appearance is little short of a revelation. He totally inhabits the character of a once idealistic young man who, stripped of his humanity by a brutal society, is driven to degradation. Yong-ho has convinced himself that he is an unworthy person and acts accordingly, extending his suffering and bitterness to the lives of the people around him without taking responsibility for his actions.

In 1979, however, in the film's last segment, he is still a sensitive dreamer who wants to become a photographer. The poignancy of the scene is magnified because we know how his life unfolds from this point and because it can be an unsettling reminder of how our own dreams may have fallen short. As Yong-ho sits in the very spot where the film began, looking up towards the light with a beatific smile on his face and a tear in his eye, he tells Sun-im that he has a strange feeling that the scene is familiar. In that moment of grace, Peppermint Candy allows us to see beyond the surface of life to its center.

I've always been a fan of south korean thrillers,they really know how to write a gripping plot with psychic characters...before the last year's biggest hit "parasite" ,they made "Burning(2018)",which was an exceptionally well made film but never got the recognition it deserved.

The director of "Burning(2018)" , "poetry", "secret sunshine" & "peppermint candy", Lee-chang-dong loves to tell a story which contains slightly traumatized characters with various underlying themes about korean Society.

Peppermint Candy follows the life of young Ho's past experiences that forced him to commit suicide.It depicts how oppressive & manipulating korean society was untill late 90's.

Throughout the 20 years journey of young Ho ,the most powerful twist occurs in his character when he accidentally shoots a girl which signifies the Gwangju Massacre (happened in south korea in 1980). Being traumatized by this event,he changed his perspective about people & became aggressive towards them.

The film portrayed exquisitely the themes on korean poltics,economic crisis, unemployment (1988-1997) and how it effected that generation including our main protagonist of the story.

A highly recommended film if you're into hard hitting dramas. --------------------------------------------------------

An original idea that I can't recall seeing anywhere else: PEPERMINT CANDY's story actually goes in reverse, but not through the flashbacks or the film being run backwards. In seven stages, from 1999 back to 1979, a viewer finds out not only about a grim & brutal personal destiny of the central character Young-Ho, but a lot about the South Korean politics and society in its turbulent past. In the case of this film there'd be a true nasty spoiler if I told you what happened last: but it is definitely worth waiting until the very end. An intelligent cinematic exposition of the irreversible laws of Karma applying to all of us. It takes a while to get adjusted to this reversal of the cause and effect because of our natural conditioning: our natural expectation is what happens next or after. Here only what happens before matters and it matters profoundly because once done the action cannot be revoked or changed. It must have been quite a challenge to make a coherent and convincing story of the script. At the end there were no loose ends or contradictions and it seemed that all the jigsaw pieces fitted perfectly.

The movie is amazing. Nothing more to say that hasn't been said about this movie already. Hope you notice the tenet-like visual that occasionally appear in the film. It's just genius for the director to come up with that visual. 'forward and backwards at the same time'.