User reviews

"Peppermint Candy" was really a nice surprise of a movie. Initially it started out a little bit strange and slow, but the story quickly kicked in and got under my skin. And once that happened, the movie just swept me away.

The movie starts out where we see a very trouble man at a reunion of sorts and he ends up committing suicide at an oncoming train. Then the story leads us back in time, lettings us travel to crucial points in the man's past, seeing what caused the man's current state of mind at the suicide point. So this was a reverse travel, seeing how the man's psyche changed gradually.

I must say that "Peppermint Candy" was really a beautiful movie, and it was a real visual treat to watch. Especially the train scenes, watching the train drive on the track, but it was filmed in reverse (just pay attention to the surroundings around the tracks, and you will see), and that was a major important factor to the movie, as it was metaphorical for taking us further back in time, to another milestone in the main character's history.

"Peppermint Candy" is a strong story-driven movie, but it is also driven by some amazing acting performances. The actors and actresses really did great jobs with their given roles, and they made the movie really come to life on the screen. Especially Kyung-gu Sol (playing Yong-ho) did an amazing job with his acting, just as what he did in the 2002 movie "Oasis". He is phenomenal at this kind of serious acting.

This is another great movie from Third Window Films, and they do deal in movies that are not mainstream Hollywood types of movies. So these movies might not be suitable for the average audience, but appeals to a more sophisticated and mature audience, who want more than just mindless entertainment, but prefer something with depth and meaning, something to challenge us and make us think. And "Peppermint Candy" is just that kind of movie.

If you like Korean movies, and like movies that are heavy on the story-driven aspect, then delve into "Peppermint Candy", because it is really a breathtakingly beautiful movie, and the story is so well told that it will stick with you for a while. And the reverse chronological order in which the story is told was just a touch of genius.

while it may take being Korean (and being part of the "386-generation" that really went through all the turbulent events of this movie's timeline) to fully appreciate this movie, it is nevertheless a powerful, graphic, and grippingly emotional commentary on South Korea of the the last twenty years. Director Chang-dong Lee masterfully presents the plot in reverse chronological order, and protagonist Kyung-gu Sol handily goes from broken buisnessman to lovesick schoolboy by the movie's end/his troubled road's beginning. In a way, this movie is perhaps Korea's unique and tragic answer to a movie like "Forrest Gump." "Na ottoke" ("what do I do?") - indeed, what does one do when faced with such experiences? Easily one of the best Korean movies I've seen to date.

A smart film! We get to follow a man back in time (in the "wrong" chronological order!?). At first he seems to be a cruel, evil and bitter man. But the further back in time the film takes us we get another picture. A picture of how an ordinary nice guy turns in to a sadistic man by the "system". Maybe the film makers wants us to see that no man is born evil.

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.

Granted, 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.

To 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.

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.

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.

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.

I'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.

This is film art that makes no concessions to 'entertainment'. A man commits suicide at the start of the film. Then the filmmaker brilliantly flashes his life before us in short scenes moving backwards in time. The emotional power of each scene is built on our knowledge of what is yet to come for this corrupted and despairing man. And that power keeps intensifying, reaching an almost unbearable level of sadness and empathy. Not since Sophie's Choice have I seen a film so unflinching in its despair. Everything about this film demonstrates greatness: the screenplay, the cinematography, the performances, the wisdom and humanity. It's not an easy film and there were many walk-outs the night I saw it at the New Directors Festival in New York, but it will stand the test of time. Should be required viewing for every 18-year-old.

Lee Chang-dong's second feature film is a lot more ambitious than his debut Green Fish. It presents a story unfolding in reverse chronology spanning several years before a man's suicide. The narrative is split between different parts with time gaps in between, connected by the movement of a train going back in time.

This film has some really great moments in it, but as a collective piece, it doesn't work as well as I wanted it to. I keep coming back to it hoping I find some new meaning to it, but my original opinion still hasn't changed. So let me go through everything that I didn't like about this movie, and then I'll move onto what I did like about it.

First off, I find the intro really annoying. It mostly has to do with the main character's obnoxious acting, but the silly characters surrounding him don't help much either. I don't claim to know anything about suicide, but I personally found it to be way over the top, especially coming from a director like Lee Chang-dong, who usually directs his films with incredible nuance and subtlety.

Throughout the whole movie I was asking "what is wrong with this guy" and clearly director Lee wanted me to be asking that so that the reveal at the end resonates with me emotionally. Unfortunately it didn't. I still sit there confused during rewatches, watching a lot of these scenes. It seems a little reductive to have a person's life be explained/justified by a single moment.

And my final big complaint is that there are no well written characters surrounding the protagonist. The big time skips between the segments make certain characters seem unrecognisable, and as a result they feel shallow, only used as narrative tools to hit certain plot points or references necessary for the main character's development.

On the bright side however, I really enjoyed certain parts of the story. Especially "Life is Beautiful" I thought was really well done, and managed to capture the complex emotions that Young-ho was feeling perfectly. The scene in the car driving back home is probably my favourite moment in the whole film. It says so much while doing so little.

Also I thought the callbacks were pretty well done throughout the film. That way the film maintains a through line that keeps the parts connected, and prevents the story from feeling too disjointed. The execution of the references isn't always the best, but it's at least serviceable, and it makes you remember important moments in the film.

In general I'm very conflicted about this film. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, because there are some really interesting moments in this story. But in the end, it didn't impact me as much as Lee's other films did. But it's still a good movie, and I still enjoyed it, despite all of my problems with it.

I was really impressed by the plot line of this film. I first wonder why he has to die and why he is so destructive. Then the plot goes reverse into the past while it untangles the mystery why he became that reckless. Chronologically placed scenes are bound together with one key 'peppermint candy'.

Kyung-gu Sol really plays the roll well. He plays it not just as a violent, but solitary and vulnerable man. Through his exquisite acting, we learn his character and even historical background. Without him, this film would be a husk.

I really did not like this movie, maybe it was because i was sick, maybe because i watched it in a lecture, but it just did not do it for me. The subtitles were terrible, whoever translated them obviously had not been speaking English very long because instead of skimming them and being able to understand what they said, you actually had to read them properly to try and decipher the way the lines were meant to be read. It was just a movie that was too drawn out, many irrelevent bits, and very slow. The ending was good, made you go "oh, wow, now i see" but left a lot of questions too, so many that, if the main character did not die at the beginning of the film, then it could even be left open for a sequel. The time line was strange, but different in a good way, although it has been done a lot better in other movies. Maybe it was just me but it's definatly not a movie i would recommend.

I loved Chang-dong Lee's Oasis, I think Kyung-gu Sol is a good actor, and Moon So-ri and Jung Suh might be my 2 favorite actresses of all time which is saying a lot for someone who was raised solely on Hollywood. That being said, this was pretty disappointing. It begins with a tragedy and initiates the viewers curiosity with the relationship between the lead male and lead female. It seems they once had an important connection and the movie moves backwards towards this starting point. However, I couldn't help feeling by the end that there was never an important connection between them. In fact, their relationship seemed quite trivial ultimately. I wonder if Eterna Sunshine borrowed its concept from this...

Working backwards from his suicide, this film never flinches as it shows the how Songho is stripped of his humanity by a government whose police and military brutally repress its citizens. By showing how Songho gets to his complete loss of self, Peppermint Candy demonstrates how easy it is for people to lose themselves in the face of repression. Thoroughly unpleasant to watch, but an important reminder of what happens in the world.

At the beginning and at the end of the film I did not like his character and his horrible nature. but a good story. at the beginning of the storyline presented by people who are very depressed and suicidal, we will be presented with a flow of flasback back to the steps of the past, step by step from various character changes and behavioral conditions experienced. I was curious that I read on the internet this film raised the issue of tragic events in 1980 (Gwangju Murder) through individual figures. Through this film, the director seems to want to illustrate the dramatic effect of the cruel event, the victims were not only civilians, but also "perpetrators", soldiers who had just carried out orders. we can be prejudiced about this film but we can reflect on life that someone's future that might be destroyed can also be formed by a dark past.

this film is not meant to be this brilliant, it's not meant to grab you by the balls, throws you around the room and paralyzed your heart with so many emotions. it's brilliance lies in its simplicity; great screenplay, great story, great characters. you can feel the story- told by the director- mr. lee chang dong is told from the heart. no hold barred emotions, cynical humour, the rawness of despair and hate to the subtle beauty of innocence and loss. this film inspired IRREVERSIBLE in so many ways (which i thought was brilliant too but when i saw peppermint candy, this film was better in terms of the scope of story and emotions). i saw 'peppermint candy' at jakarta international film festival recently and was shocked to find the film was made around 5 years ago. this films shows independent film is not just about a bunch of couple arguing in the kitchen for 40 minutes as in the case of most 'art' films. it has depth, character, soul and testament about the human conditions at its lowest and highest.

Let me tell you, I hate movies with a passion because most films are shallow and are like low-quality table wine. Very few are rare gems and this one sparkled bright.

The beginning shows a broken looking man who discovers a reunion between students he knew twenty years ago. He loses control while singing a karaoke song and wanders off towards the nearby train tracks and waits for the coming train to hit him.

We see a reverse motion explaining why he committed suicide, and I was awe-stricken at the power of the story-telling. He "begins" as a cruel and heartless man who failed in life to a different picture, an innocent and emotional student who wanted to be photographer.

Whether this has to with the history of South Korea is irrelevant as this is touching and heartfelt journey about a society which can change any human into a monster.

Although acclaimed South Korean writer Lee Chang Dong has made only four films (Green Fish,Peppermint Candy,Oasis and Secret Sunshine) in his rewarding cinematographic career till date,he has turned out to be an altogether different director as he films his subject matter in a manner which is more akin to writing a book.This is plausible as he has decided to enter film making realm after writing screen plays of two critically acclaimed South Korean films "A Single Spark" and "To the Starry Island" both of which were directed by Park Kwang Su.A resounding impression which one can have while watching "Peppermint Candy" concerns the division of its narrative content into various sub themes.This has been done in order to show how past events are monumental in shaping the current destiny of a hapless individual as well as that of an injured nation.Lee Chang Dong's narrative style is virtually a double edged sword as he shows the feeling of hurt which have been suffered by both South Korean nation as well as by the film's protagonist.History of South Korean nation is undoubtedly a major theme of the film but it has been told in a rather playful, didactic manner.This is because Lee Chang Dong has concentrated more on simple things of life which are as important for ordinary South Korean people as their nation's turbulent history of the past. Peppermint Candy is a film to be viewed more than once as it is not a film but more of a metaphor of life.This is quite a new phenomenon in the history of South Korean cinema.

To be frank, I really don't like this movie. It is too long. When the movie started, it started with a man attempting suicide whereas his friends were enjoying reunion party. So,I thought maybe there must a hidden story of his acts. But as the time passes it proved me wrong. I found it too boring.

'Peppermint Candy' is an ambitious movie with a protagonist directly involved in important political (a dictatorial regime, the Gwangju Massacre, torture) and socio-economic (trade unionism, the business world) issues. It is a strong meditation on the history of South Korea, its political problems and the violent repression of democratization movements by the government through the army and the police. These authoritarian interventions demoralized the population and broke the idealism of the South-Korean youth, with the protagonist of this movie as a pars pro toto. He is forced as a soldier to participate in the repression of a student and trade union uprising (the Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement) and as a police officer in the torture of trade unionists.

For most non-Korean viewers the socio-political events in this movie are probably not well known. A (second) more explicit title for the various episodes would certainly have helped their understanding. Lee Chang-dong used brilliantly very effective symbols, such as people with disabilities (the destabilization of the population), a train for flashbacks or the title (and the distribution of mints during the different 'bitter' episodes) as a contrast with the fate of the main character.

This second feature film by Lee Chang-dong is very representative for the movies which could be shot in a freer and more open South Korean society from the 1990s on. Highly recommended.

When I was a kid in the 1990s, I saw on television news almost every day that students in South Korea were arguing with the police.

I always thought, what are these demonstrations for?

Watching this video tells us exactly what was the reason for all the clashes with the police. A sick society under the influence of dictatorship and a corrupt system.

This movie has a beautiful and dreamy beginning. A man , who is about to commit suicide, sees some of his old friends by the river.

Then the memories of the past pass through his mind. I do not want to spoil the story of the film, but I definitely suggest you watch this film. I gave this beautiful film a score of 9 out of 10.

If the rhythm of the movie was a little faster, I could say that this is a complete movie. But in some scenes, the rhythm of the film becomes boring. But this is a glorious film that must be seen.

If you manage to not be annoyed during its opening minutes that features a deranged asshole with suicidal tendencies putting up an extraordinary display of craziness before killing himself by getting run over by a train, you just might be able to enjoy Peppermint Candy and even end up being impressed by it too. Told in reverse chronology, this film covers the past 20 years in the life of that stupid maniac & depicts the events that eventually led to his suicide while also showing that he was not such a weirdo from the beginning but was slowly transformed into one by the Korean 'system'.

Nicely directed by Lee Chang-dong for the manner he has narrated this story, well-written too for how the events depicted in the life of the protagonist clash with relevant moments of Korean history, manically performed by its lead actor that also included few moments where he went completely over the top & was hamming like a freak, and displaying fine technical execution throughout its runtime, Peppermint Candy is a sad portrait of a young life wasted away by cynicism & loss of love that didn't really work as well as I would've liked & eventually felt much longer than its runtime.

'Peppermint Candy' doesn't always make for comfortable viewing, particularly at the beginning of the film when the protagonist is in such a deranged state, but Lee Chang-dong's clever story-telling traces events backwards to show how brutal life and political events can dismantle a human being. This was only his second major feature (made in 1999), but the South Korean film maker and cast draw you in ... you can't turn away however unpleasant it gets ... utterly compelling!