Cinema
Peppermint Candy
박하사탕
Lee Chang-dong · 1999
Synopsis
Kim Yeong-ho, a hard man gnawed by self-hatred, climbs onto a railway track and, facing the oncoming train, cries out that he wants to go back. The film takes him at his word and travels back in time, in seven dated and titled sections separated by images of a train running backwards, from his middle age to his youth. The tormented history of Korea at the end of the century passes through each one, without ever being explained.
Context
Its author's second feature film, it opened the Busan festival on 14 October 1999 and was released in Korea on 1 January 2000. Sul Kyung-gu plays Kim Yeong-ho, Moon So-ri Yun Sun-im and Kim Yeo-jin Hong-ja. The train shots were filmed moving forward and then edited in reverse, notes Senses of Cinema. The ninth most-watched national film of the year, with 311,000 admissions in Seoul, it received at Karlovy Vary a special jury prize, ex aequo, and the Don Quixote Prize, then at the Grand Bell the awards for best film, direction and screenplay; it was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.
Who it is for
A film of one hundred and thirty minutes, structured in reverse; released in France under its English title, now distributed by Diaphana.
Prizes and reception
Korean Film Critics Association Award for best film; selected in New York, London and Chicago; restored in 4K.
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