Peppermint Candy
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Profile
- Movie: Peppermint Candy
- Revised romanization: Bakha satang
- Hangul: 박하사탕
- Director: Lee Chang-Dong
- Writer: Lee Chang-Dong
- Assistant Director: Byun Seung-Wook
- Producer:
- Cinematographer:
- Release Date: January 1, 2000
- Runtime: 127 Min.
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Plot
for the 20th year reunion of their old factory worker’s association. While they sing and dance up a storm, their long-lost friend Yongho shows up, disrupting the party. He climbs on top of a railroad track and refuses to budge despite the danger of an approaching train. The Camera: Three Days Ago, Spring 1999. Three days earlier, Yongho picks up a gun and goes home to his makeshift home to end his life. He is met by a stranger as he opens the front door. The stranger is the husband of Sunim, Yongho’s first love, who on her deathbed ask for Yongho. Yongho comes to the hospital with a jar of peppermint candy for Sunim, and reminisces about how Sunim had sent a peppermint with each letter she wrote to Yongho when he was in the military. As Yongho leaves, Sunim’s husband presents him with a camera that Sunim had saved for him all these years. Yongho sells it later on.
Life is Beautiful: Summer 1994. Yongho is a 35-year-old man, successful in his business but hard and calloused with time. With seeming indifference, he catches his wife Hongja at a love hotel. But he is also involved in an affair. Later he goes on a date with his mistress, and spots a man from his past, Myungsik. He meets up with Myungsik in the restroom and says something mysteriously to him, “life is beautiful.”
Confession: Spring 1987. Yongho is newly married and is a police detective. In the police station’s interrogation room, Yongho questions Myungsik on the whereabouts of a student activist, an interrogation that escalates to cruel water torture. The fugitive student is in a hiding in Kunsan. There, Yongho picks up a bargirl who offers to be a surrogate for Sunim, the first love, who now lives in Kunsan. As Sunim comes to life in the bargirl, Yongho breaks down in tears.
Prayer: Fall 1984. Yongho is new to the police department and his first assignment is to crack a labor organization. This entails the brutal torture of a labor activist. After the interrogation, Sunim comes to find him. Yongho takes Sunim to eat at Hongja’s restaurant and flirts with Hongja to push Sunim away.
Sunim tries to give Yongho a camera that she’s saved money up for, but he returns it to her. Later that night Yongho takes Hongja to a hotel, and Hongja recites a prayer before they sleep together.
Military Visit: May 1980. Sunim comes to visit Yongho in the military, but her visit is rejected because of the martial law that has suddenly been imposed. In the barracks, Yongho frantically puts together his combat gear, spilling a bag full of peppermint candy on the ground. As the truck drives away, a swell of hoots rises from the troops as they pass Sunim walking on the road. Unknown to the young soldiers, their destination is Kwangju Massacre. That night Yongho is severely injured, and while waiting for help, Sunim seems to appear in the dark. It is not Sunim, but a schoolgirl running to safety, who Yongho fatally shoots in a moment of confused panic.
Picnic: Fall 1979. Yongho is twenty years old and at the most beautiful moment in his life. A group of factory friends have gathered at the same riverbank below the railroad tracks, as at the beginning of the film. Yongho and Sunim are beginning to fall in love. Yongho confides that he’d like to be a photographer one day. He feels certain that he’s been to this riverbank before, that maybe it’s a dream. Sunim says she hopes it’s a good dream.
Cast
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| Sol Kyung-Gu | Moon So-Ri | Kim Yeo-Jin | Ko Seo-Hee | Seo Jung |
| Yong-Ho | Sunim | Hong-Ja | Kyeong-a | Ms. Ri |
Additional Cast Members:
- Kim In-Kwon
- Lee Dae-Yeon
- Park Kil-Soo
- Park Ji-Yeon - Jung Sun-Yi
- Se-beom Park
- Yoo Yeon-Soo - Det. Lee
- Lee Dae-Yeon
- Park No-Shik
- Myeong Gye-Nam
- Kong Hyung-Jin
- Ji Dae-Han
- Jo Han-Cheol
- Kim Kyeong-Ik - Park Myung-shik
- Yang Hee-Kyeong - Radio DJ
- Yu Seung-Mok - Il-byeong Lim
- Choi Deok-Mun
- Jeong Woo-Hyeok
- Jung Min-Sung - furniture store employee
- Yoon Mi-Kyung - female factory worker 7
- Park Seong-Yeon - female factory worker 9
- Son Young-Soon - Hong-Ja's mother
Trailer
Film Festivals
- 2011 (48th) Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival - November 3-24, 2011 - Filmmakers in Focus - A Tribute to Lee Chang-Dong
