Bakha satang: Peppermint Candy

If "Memento" and "Forrest Gump" were set in Korea...

I say "Memento" because it is told out of order...and "Forrest Gump" because Yong-ho, our flawed protagonist, is interacting with Korean history which (like Forrest Gump) would be recognizable to Koreans.

The film opens in a secluded picnic grounds, agroup of old friends are reuniting after many years. Their seclusion is broken by the entrance of Yong-ho (Kyeong-gu) who they haven't seen for years, but he has changed: he is drunk and miserable. Finding no solance from his old friends he climbs onto a rail road bridge waiting for a train to come and end his misery. As the train gets closer he yells: I want to go back! And thats what the film does...

Told in reverse this is the story of Yong-ho and why he is so miserable. The passage of time is marked by the train traveling in reverse in between scenes (7 in all), ending twenty years before the opening scene when the same group of people met for the first time...

--: While this film is well-made, it is hard to watch. There is at least one graphic sex scene along with several scenes of nudity...they swear a lot...and there is quite a bit of violence (he is in the military and he tortures prisoners)...don't eat directly before, during, or after watching this film

RECOMMENDED: This is the BEST Korean film I have seen. The story is incredibly powerful; if you you don't feel anything after you watch this film...you are dead!

Peppermint Candy [Bakha satang] (2000) 130 minutes
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Starring: Seol Kyeong-gu as Yong-ho
Moon So-ri as Sunim
Kim Yeo-jin as Hongja