NOVEL THINKING

The story is told through the use of flashbacks; not an unusual narrative device, but cleverly used to keep the audience hanging on the chain of events that lead to the character’s insanity and final demise. While much can be said about the technical aspects of film, coming from a small town in Germany, I cherish the notion of art showing its audience something which one does normally avoid, neglect or is unable to see for many different reasons. As it begins, we are only set back three days as we observe Yong-ho, homeless, alone and left by his wife, wandering the streets of Seoul, looking for the people responsible for his misfortune. Without these side references, the train could be as well be moving forward. Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas, The Takashi Miike Project (101/105 complete), Film Review: The Isle (2000) by Kim Ki-duk, 77th Venice Film Review: The Best is Yet to Come (2020) by Jing Wang, Film Review: The Land of Seonghye (2018) by Hyung-suk Jung, Anime Review: Baki the Grappler : Most Evil Death Row Convicts (2018) by Toshiki Hirano, Film Review: Holy Flame of the Martial World (1983) by Lu Chin Ku, Anime Review: Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045 (2020) by Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki, Finalists for the Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market 2020 Announced, Documentary Review: My Dearest Sister (2018) by Kyoka Tsukamoto, Film Review: The Greatest Country in the World (2019) by Ky Nam Le Duc, Interview with Tsai Ming-liang: In All My 20 Years and More of Film-making Career I Always Really Disliked Writing Scripts, Anime Review: Kill La Kill (2013) by Hiroyuki Imaishi, Film Review: Lingering (2020) by Kim Yoon-een, Film Review: Labyrinth of Dreams (1997) by Sogo Ishii, Short Film Review: My Gaza-Online (2020) by Mohamed Jabaly. Similar to a detective story, the viewer is able to focus on various clues laid out in the dialogues and the images and sounds designed as a closely-knit web of motives or a puzzle which makes all the more sense as you watch the last episode of the film. These blurred boundaries can give the spectator a headache, but at the same time they are what keep us thinking about them even after so many years; because they offer a critical perspective onto Korea’s society by sparking debates on national history and culture. At the same time, he remains something of an enigma to the viewer, unpredictable in his acts of kindness and cruelty, but struggling with issues deeply buried inside of him, only revealed in the last segments of the film. Especially with the success of his latest film “Burning”, Chang-dong’s body of work has to be regarded as one of the most interesting focusing on topics such as his home country’s history, masculinity, human relations and art. ( Log Out /  The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run: A Review. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Ever wonder what will happen when you die? I believe that the train’s journey can have another interpretation; in fact, it becomes clear it is travelling backwards only when we see the actions of the passers-by at the sides of the frame. Consists of five phases of a man's life about why he committed suicide in the end. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. We start with a broken maniac ready to commit suicide on some train tracks, and end with a … Description. Overall Peppermint Candy is more important than it is good, which is quite difficult to say, but in the end my honest opinion. We added extra goodness with pure therapeutic-grade∇ peppermint essential oil for a winter wonderland escape in the comfort of your warm bath! What is startling, and unsettlingly true to this day, is the indifference of all but one of the people around him.Indifference to others is still a recognizable social behavior adopted by many South Koreans who prefer to avoid direct involvement in situations they don’t know how to manage, they fear they don’t have enough authority to step into, or that could potentially become troublesome if the police were to be involved. ... Armond White, a culture critic, writes about movies for National Review and is the author of New Position: The Prince Chronicles. Going from the suave businessman, the struggling police officer to the desperate man screaming in unspeakable agony at the beginning, demonstrates the enormous range of this actor. This type of social alienation between the protagonist and his so-called “friends” is accentuated by the spatial distance between him (walking on the railways) and them (staring at him from far while continuing the party).

Aspects the songs used in the film and performed by the characters, the titular peppermint candy or the recurring images of water and streams are just pieces of a puzzle showing the great skill of Lee Chang-dong as a visual storyteller. Reached this point, we cannot but feel pity for Yongho, a character for whom it seems there was no hope from the beginning. Often the stories told in films have helped me understand, discover and connect to something new which is a concept I would like to convey in the way I talk and write about films. With Kyung-gu Sol, Yeo-jin Kim, So-Ri Moon, Se-beom Park. This scene is a perfect example of how the boundary between the particular and the national is blurred by director Lee, as the national trauma of Korea’s recent history is conveyed through his wounded body and unhinged psyche. Similar to his work as a novelist previous to his film career, art, as the director explains in an interview with writer Andrew Chan, is a way “to communicate with all those certain somebodies out there […] whose names and faces I didn’t know” and to explore new worlds and environments. A desperate cry for help that has now become a cult in South Korea. Throughout the journey, it could be very hard for the audience to empathize with Yongho, an emasculated man victim of unfortunate circumstances (such as the IMF crisis) but also perpetrator to others and to himself. One might notice something unusual about Peppermint Candy straightaway: it’s backwards.

These smell so sweet and refreshing with phthalate-free fragrance oils! The bleak beginning leaves the audience wondering if they should investigate the reasons behind Yongho (our protagonist)’s suicide. All that is left to do is to weep for the loss of his innocence (in true South Korean melodramatic style), a time where he still believed he could achieve his dream of becoming a photographer and be together with the woman he truly loved. Here the train does exactly the opposite: it regresses in both time and space, tracing back its itinerary while revisiting backwards the most important events in Yongho’s past.

A desperate cry for help that has now become a cult in South Korea. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. It is what the protagonist of Peppermint Candy (Bakha Satang in Korean) screams seconds before being run over by a train.

Given its international acclaim, its many awards and honors at festivals around the globe, “Peppermint Candy” has experienced a plethora of analytical essays and exploration, specifically with the focus on the theme of masculinity. Through these shots, director Lee is not only documenting this awkward interaction between individuals in the Korean society, but perhaps he is going as far as to criticize it. It is what the protagonist of Peppermint Candy (Bakha Satang in Korean) screams seconds before being run over by a train. Ever since I watched Takeshi Kitano's "Hana-Bi" for the first time (and many times after that) I have been a cinephile. While these issues are definitely worth looking into, perhaps the most interesting concepts is the way Chang-dong discusses memory and time. To what extent is he responsible for his own downfall and how much can we blame historical circumstances? After his debut feature “Green Fish” (1997) South-Korean director Lee Chang-dong made what is possibly one of his most commercially and critically acclaimed films, “Peppermint Candy”. Normally trains bring us forward from one destination to another and have traditionally emblemized the idea of progress. These would make a perfect Christmas gift for that special someone or yourself! Date: October 14, 2019 Author: Francesca 0 Comments. Ultimately, this supposedly anti-climatic structure allows for a more detailed insight into a person’s life. That night might have triggered the manifestation of Yongho’s psychological instability; however, this was the result of a process of repression and emasculation induced during the years of his military training. Peppermint Candy for Conservatives By Armond White. ). Amid defeat and pain, he stands on a railroad hoping that the incoming train could take him back in time. Korean/Asian Movies, Portfolio, Thumbs Up or Down Movie Reviews. ( Log Out /  The experience of this current viewing was more challenging due to the reverse chronological structure and often unclear plot, than the emotionally harrowing performance and plot it is typically known for. When he is picked up by a strange man introducing himself as the husband to his first girlfriend, he visits her at the hospital at her deathbed. With a brilliant leading performance by Sol Kyung-gu and a cleverly constructed script written by the director himself, “Peppermint Candy” remains a great entry into a body of work which has yet to be discovered by many cinephiles out there. Especially Sol Kyung-gu deserves much recognition, for his approach to the character of Yong-ho is both psychologically and physically demanding. It affects a non-linear structure, forcing the viewer to witness the lead’s story in reverse chronology. Change ). Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. In the end, “Peppermint Candy” is a powerful drama, a visually stunning exploration of issues like fate, time and memory and how they shape our lives. In the following segments of the film, we eventually venture back 20 years in Yong-ho’s life exploring the person he ultimately becomes and was, how the events have changed himself and what his dreams were when he was still a young man. But after a series of unfortunate events and poor decisions, Yong-ho lost everything. Using the leitmotif of the train with fitting images and sounds underlining the significance of certain events in each of the segments, the film re-traces a person’s life while asking the question whether there was an alternative to these decisions or whether it was pre-determined like the journey of a train always following the tracks in front of it. Aspects the songs used in the film and performed by the characters, the titular peppermint candy or the recurring images of water and streams are just pieces of a puzzle showing the great skill of Lee Chang-dong as a visual storyteller.

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