Peppermint Candy

Synopsis

Peppermint Candy (Korean: 박하사탕; RR: Bakhasatang) is a 1999 South Korean tragedy film by Lee Chang-dong. The film opens with the suicide of the protagonist and uses reverse chronology to depict some of the key events of the past 20 years of his life that led to this point, with the seven segments of the film taking place in 1999, 1999, 1994, 1987, 1984, 1980, and 1979. Important historical events that inform the plot of the film include Coup d'état of May Seventeenth and the subsequent Gwangju Uprising (1980), the period of the Fifth Republic of Korea (1981-1988), June Democratic Struggle (1987), and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It was the ninth-highest-grossing domestic film of 2000 with 311,000 admissions in Seoul. It was well-received, especially at film festivals. Spurred by the success of Lee Chang-dong's directorial debut, Green Fish, Peppermint Candy was chosen as the opening film for the Busan International Film Festival in its first showing in 1999. It won multiple awards at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the Grand Bell Awards for best film of 2000.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Movie

Release date

January 1, 2000

Genres

drama film, fiction film

Created by

Lee Chang-dong

Runtime

130 min

Countries

South Korea