Not nice to watch but definitely worth seeing. Superbly done in many ways. Powerful. Resonating.

Prolog:
The conclusion for the protagonist in his late 30s is rather tragic: he´s getting the urge to go back. He wants the life of his late youth back. He cannot continue with who he is today. For him, there is only one option remaining – a shortcut to the exit.
However, for the audience, the end is actually the beginning. The journey goes backwards in seven chapters. And when we finally reach the start, it actually makes sense to look at the ending again... (in movie-terms: its beginning...)
-------------------------------------------------- ----


“Peppermint Candy” was one of the top ten movies in 2000. The international awards it collected are respectable. And even in 2022, “The Guardian” has it listed in 12th place among South Korean film classics. Meaning: It was topical back then and still hasn’t lost its impact. It´s cult. It can be considered particularly valuable. However, it´s not particularly nice, though. Rather particularly powerful and ferociously intense.

"Peppermint Candy" dates from 1999. It tells the story of the previous two decades of South Korean history using the example of an arbitrary, inconspicuous individual. For audience who isn´t firm in recent South Korean history, the KMovie may be reduced to the protagonist as an individual - to his very personal story and his tragic ending. For all those who know something about the historical, social background (see the side note below if you like), the KMovie becomes a memorial on screen that commemorates all those in society who were probably thus affected in one way or another, too, and may have had a similar experience. And there were quite a few.

In 1999, South Korea looked back on two extremely eventful decades. Two decades that were endured, sustained, borne by the people... Two decades that, in addition to democracy, turbo-capitalism and material prosperity, also produced a whole series of psychological cripples.
I actually don't like the word 'cripple', but somehow it seems appropriate in this case, here in the sense of: people who were maltreated by others or 'by life´s circumstances' to the point of psychic unconsciousness (even if perhaps they themselves were involved as perpetrators, too). People who were broken by their fate and trauma, not being allowed to and/or able to talk about it. People who fell, lost themselves, could no longer get back on their feet, feeling helpless. Completely bent. People who could not find peace with their shame and guilt. In their inability to communicate about it and get help, they became a total human failure for those around them.

In reverse "Peppermint Candy" portrays the career of such a psychological (and physical) 'cripple' in intense scenes. We may acknowledge the individual fate. Even without historical background and regardless of socialization, we acknowledge a broken soul, of which all that is left to the outside world is actually an 'asshole'. Once a poetic, delicate, sensitive spirit... it´s hard to believe. Actor Sol Kyung-gu expands the entire range of his skills, convincingly and uncompromisingly drawing the audience into each of his divers crucial, rather unpleasant emotional life situations.

“Peppermint Candy” is superbly done in many ways. Not too much, not too little. Ruthless. And in pointed, symbolic imagery, the scenes gain in emotional power and meaningfulness as they progress - even after we have travelled a few sequences further (back) - to the extent that the puzzle of drastic life events accumulated are coherently put together into a pile of shards.

The protagonist in "Peppermint Candy" is experiencing the significant historic events of his generation at the forefront. His psychical downward spiral cannot be stopped. But this protagonist is no exception. Countless people in their late thirties in South Korea in 1999 could have told such or similar stories. During those traumatizing two decades the public was carelessly left alone to individually deal with what had happened. What a person experienced emotionally, what a person had to process and couldn't, the decisions made, the guilt, the shame, the pain – the answer to that was mainly psychological repression and silence about it. The consequences in everyday life: Outbursts of acting up and/or apathy. Sometimes the old wound hurts again. The old wound makes man fall to the ground, by its pain that he cannot escape. But it is also a phantom pain - the desperate suffering over an essential piece of 'who I am' that was taken away once and for all...

The protagonist in "Peppermint Candy" suffers on behalf of an entire generation of anonymous young people who were quietly worn down, deeply psychologically shattered and finally by the two decades of the 80s and 90s, the time of transition from military dictatorship to modern capitalism existentially bankrupt. The KMovie reaches out to all those who may have had a similar experience and/or were able to sympathize. Where communication had been lacking for decades, the KMovie, with its sometimes disturbing insights, tries to build a bridge: with understanding that may even extend to empathy. "Peppermint Candy" manages to connect the South Korean people through the fate of this one fictional man and his personal environment. (Additionally, it may even touch the rest of the world). Yongho, who could be 'anyone', and with him the women in his life, his friends (?), his colleagues and his victims who had crossed his path, who could also be 'anyone'…

Not nice to watch. But definitely worth seeing.
Powerful. Resonating. A convincingly empathetic work.
A work of passion.









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SIDE NOTE: --- Brief overview of the historical background of South Korea - regarding May 1980 in Gwangju, the 1980s under repressive police violence, and the years of economic miracle up to the Asian crisis of 1997-1999. ---


May 1980 in Gwangju, South Korea, featured a bloody massacre that the police and military were ordered to carry out on their own people. Yet, that massacre of Gwangju remained an official taboo for almost two decades. What happened in Gwangju back then was kept secret from the rest of the country. Then, the city was deliberately cordoned off. The enemy was officially called 'communism' (especially in student circles, supposedly under the infiltrated influence of North Korea.)
Those who survived May 1980 in Gwangju and perhaps could or would have wanted to talk about it were pressured, persecuted, tortured and put in camps. The others who preferred to remain silent had to figure out by themselves how to emotionally digest what had happend.

President Chun Do-hwan, who succeeded his predecessor Park Chung-hee in the aftermath of the bloody spring of 1980, did not create any less autocratic structures for the common people than before with his dictatorship. On the contrary. With him, brutal torture was carried out in the spirit of a systematic cleansing. The years of Chun Do-hwan's rule were some of the worst for South Korea in terms of political repression. His mission: The country should use all its might to present itself to the rest of the world as dazzling and up-and-coming until the Olympic Games. Whatever/whoever was bothersome was put away. However, the autocratic rule of the dictator and his brutal power apparatus with police and secret service ended in 1987 as a result of unbridled, enormous public pressure. The people's longing for democracy was finally able to prevail.

Parallel to the repression under Chun Do-hwan, the 1980s and following years were characterized by the years of economic miracle. The market became increasingly liberalized and it was all about exports. Yet, on a large scale growth and prosperity were built on credit: direct investments from abroad, credit cards for the people in the country, loan sharks for all those smaller companies that couldn't get the money from the banks. But the bubble of the expansive credit economy of the 1990s burst in 1997 with the Asian crisis. The credit boom was followed by a crash, an enormous fall in the value of the won, a series of bankruptcies, unemployment all over the place and poverty for the many.

Even though South Korea got back on its feet astonishingly quickly in the course of the subsequent years of the so called IMF Economic Crisis, the path was marked by countless fates of bankruptcies and many families suffering from for a long time since.

Lees verder

Disillusioned life scenario, yet spiked with moments as the ego steps aside + heartopening happens

A wonderful movie in many ways.

This KMovie is aiming straight at the heart. This is already indicated in the international title "Keys to the Heart". Also, that the piano plays a key role - i. e. its 88 white and black keys.

The original title is more like "This only is my world" and refers in its own way to the piano, because this is the world of the autistic protagonist Jin-tae. However, this also refers to the (also limited) world of his brother Jo-ha, to which Jin-tae starts belonging. Additionally, revolving around Jin-tae (and Jo-ha) is their mother. "Keys to the Heart" is a story about that mother and her two very different sons. She left one of them decades ago as a little boy under dramatic circumstances and to date he hasn't forgotten, let alone forgiven. The other is autistic with savant syndrome.

It´s a given that the story intends to bring tears to your eyes. Yes. The story wants to get to the heart. But not generally in a tender, comforting and blissful manner. In fact, there is nothing but pain drifting around those hearts in this story. The framework of the plot draws a disillusioned, depressed scenario of the lives of ALL characters - regardless of whether they are rich or penniless, or otherwise have a more or less comfortable living. (The exception to the rule here is the autistic Jin-tae.) As if it were the most natural thing in South Korean everyday life for people to suffer. There is a good deal of social criticism in this KMovie. I think that's often overlooked in its critics or reviews.
There's the drinking, beating father; the abandoned son; the penniless son who can do nothing but box; the brutal world of dog fighting, where boxers beat each other bloody for money; the single mother with cancer; the mother with guilt; the autistic son; the depressed, suicidal, rich, once famous invalid; the Jaebeol CEO, whose money doesn't help her to be able to buy back her daughter's happiness. Eventually "Key to the Heart" is a dreary, sobering contemporary document. Not a picture of society of the crisis-ridden 1990s, no. It is a simple, unpretentious social inventory of the South Korean affluent society from the year 2018...

Now, some heart-warming light is shining into this fundamentally gloomy everyday world. (And in those of the audience as well.) In rather small spots though. These are brief details, inconspicuous moments (apart from the big spotlight of the finale, which is a bit more spectacular). However, those little spots make all the difference. Not a flash of inspiration, rather a flash of the heart, in which the injured ego steps aside for a moment: for a moment of clarity for the essential: actually, what´s NOW. For a moment, people can just let go of all grief and become open to what life has to offer just NOW: beauty, warmth, joy, hope. This NOW can transform, heal, completely change the view of the world. The world on this earth itself is the same, yes, the planet does not change its orbit because of it. It's not suddenly 'everything will be fine again'. And yet it is something like 'everything-IS-good'. ... That brings us to the KMovie's favorite quote: "Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion." (Muhammad Ali)

Admittedly, a button is pressed when it comes to the piano music. The classics take their space. But here, too, the story does not fail to take the opportunity to point out the ego-driven business with it - the talent and passion of the musicians may be on the one hand, but the very personal interests of teachers and directors are on the other...
Of course, with Jin-tae as a young man with an autism spectrum disorder with savant syndrome, the KMovie is deliberately pressing another selected button, with the intention of moving hearts. Nevertheless, even this developmental disorder is not romanticized, yet shown as demanding and exhausting to deal with.
Particularly pithy and powerful: The contrast between the world of the buttoned-up, reserved, respectable, reasonable and properly dressed classical music scene and the childlike, impulsive and playful but brilliant Jin-tae, whose piano playing tears down walls for a moment.

At last, we are back at the beginning: a story about that mother and her two very different sons... There is hurt, sorrow, the pain of loss and guilt - all is there, what life has to offer to become estranged from each another, or to feel lonely and abandoned. And that's where love - no matter how screwed up - finds its screwed-up moments. I don't think predictability is a problem with this movie, because it doesn't want to be 'enthralling'. Yet, it wants to touch the heart, and it does. Eventually, that's good for everyone. With this movie, it is the HOW that is decisive: by sober narration of a basically rather depressing story that thrives on short, unspectacular moments (and the actors) in which 'new' NOW-decisions are made and heart opening becomes possible.

Great!





--------------------------- SIDE NOTES --- Savant syndrome ---

Savant syndrome has often been a topic in the cinema, for example in the US production "Rain Man". There are only around 100 "Savants" known worldwide (from the French 'savoir' = knowing, how to do it). Accordingly, the phenomenon has only been scientifically examined to a limited extent. In the musical field, there are various examples of Savants (like the fictitious Jin-tae here in the movie) who, without any music lessons, are able to play the most difficult pieces of music with accentuated detail after just hearing it once - solely thanks to their perfect hearing.

However, Savant syndrome usually goes hand in hand with autism spectrum disorders. This in turn refers to developmental disorders of varying severity. The people affected typically have little interest and competence when it comes to social interaction. They prefer to live in their own world. Generally, their perception is strongly focused on details and does not weight them like the otherwise socialized majority around them. Details that others usually overlook become subjectively crucial, while information considered essential to their environment may not play any particular role at all. Information is initially unfiltered, being of equal value in its perception. Thus, without the social-cognitive filters that non-autistic people learn to develop, the moment of sensory overload followed by stress is quickly reached.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lees verder

It is not a fun movie, yet it is radiating truly positive energy in spite of its appalling topic

"Herstory" is an example of a highbrow KMovie, which has real life as its subject and at the same time influences real life as an impact of the movie reception.

It is about the lawsuit brought by a handful of "Comfort Women" from Busan - actual long forgotten/ignored sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. The trial took place between 1992 and 1998 in Japan. This noteworthy trial set in motion the resolution of a rather dark chapter in recent Asian history.

It was about time to not look away anymore. The subject of "Comfort Women" was until then a taboo subject even in South Korea. The refered to court hearing in the 1990s was actually a milestone in the reappraisal of this chapter. Thus the KMovie "Herstory" is a poignant, publicly effective monument to this chapter in history and honoring the affected, victimized and long forgotten women (and their advocats).

"Herstory" is sensitively illustrating the painful path to this (no less painful) trial as well as its dramatic individual cases. The KMovie becomes the mouthpiecer of at least a few of those women´s fates and at the same time a touching memorial, arousing the awareness of the cruel war crimes committed against civilian women.

It is not a fun movie, yet it is radiating a tuely positive energy in spite of its appalling topic! I consider it in several respects highly valuable.

It is about empowerment and sisterhood. The cast ist outstanding.
This movie is confronting glorious ´his´stories with ´his´ rather tabooed ignominious behaviours... and thus make it ´her´stories.




---------------- SIDE NOTE --- Historical Comfort Women in World War II ---
For a long time, the fate of an estimated 200.000 Korean young women and girls, who were traumatized as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II, went unnoticed by the world. Until the 1990s their existence was a taboo - even in South Korea! In fact, Japan's government and military recruited (mostly) Korean young women and girls. They were used against their will in so-called "comfort stations" as "Comfort Women" for motivation of the armed forces - i.e. as sex slaves being abused by the sodliers.

Officially, this fact was (and still is to some extent) vehemently denied by the Japanese side and hasn´t been clarified for more than 5 decades, let alone talked about reparations. However, in terms of international law, what happened has to be considered war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as slavery and trafficking in women and children - crimes they are. However, the war crimes tribunals after the end of the Second World War were more concerned with crimes against members of the Allies. So in public THOSE crimes against civilian women were forgotten.

With this particular court hearing the movie is refering to, for the first time a verdict in favor of the (comparably few) plaintiffs was at least partially reached. The ladies, who had meanwhile aged, were actually awarded a ridiculously small amount of compensation. So the verdict is still outrageous, but a verdict nonetheless. Nevertheless, as a result, the story of comfort women was publicized for the first time and an international reparation movement was launched.

Obviously the topic had appeared on the table ... but it was still not legally clarified. On the contrary. The issue as such (and its many and even more individuale cases) have still not been satisfactorily resolved ... while most of the actual victims have by now died of age.

Lees verder