69
296
11
3
2
2
3
2
1
1
2
5
"What secrets made you leave me behind?"
Peppermint Candy told the story of a man who knew the only light at the end of the tunnel was the beam from an oncoming train bearing inexorably straight for him. As his life passes before his eyes, we see seven chapters that made him the man he became. What we find is a man with his life set on self-destruct.
Kim Yong Ho crashes the outdoor 20 year anniversary party for factory workers who once lived in the honeycomb cells near the factory. Obviously distraught he stumbles toward the train tracks while most of the party goers turn up the music and dance. As he shouts, “I’m going back!” the oncoming train suddenly runs in reverse and his life is rewound showing the decisions he could control and the decisions that were ripped away from him.
Director Lee Chang Dong takes the viewer through Kim’s life during the 1980s and 90s. The ROK suffered a traumatic national wound during the times of dictators and martial law, student and union uprisings that led to many of them being arrested and tortured, economic failures, and the shocking Gwangju Massacre. Kim was thoroughly unlikeable, a man filled to overflowing with self-loathing who had nothing left to give but contempt. He felt no mercy had been shown to him so he showed none either. He had done things for which the stench and blood never left him. The backward running train seemingly appeared as a specter of the future at key interludes.
As Lee peeled back the layers of Kim’s life, I’m sure I was supposed to feel empathy for him. Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, “Life is an ironic tragedy. It has to be lived forward but only makes sense in reverse.” We can use past experiences to create a path for the future. Some misfortunes can lead to growth and better decision making or they can completely dismantle a soul. Kim chose the latter. Every stupid decision he made just added to the weight of his suffering and the suffering of those around him. He could have chosen atonement but instead he chose selfishness, cruelty, and bone crushing hopelessness.
Peppermint Candy showed the unflinching violence that sadistic policemen and soldiers, and a jealous husband committed on other people. The harrowing times played a hand in Kim’s trajectory, but he played a larger hand in the act of bleeding out his own humanity. He never took responsibility or asked for forgiveness, never chose a better path. No one forced him to make the horrific decisions he chose so I for one shed no tears for him. I know Lee must have liked his full circle motif, but the story would have played out better for me if he’d traveled back to the furthest moment and worked his way to the present chronologically. Overall, this film was well made and Sul Kyung Gu gave a stellar performance. But I was unable to absolve Kim by saying he was simply a victim of the times he lived in.
12 August 2025
Trigger warnings: Frontal nudity-male and female. Sexual situations. Torture scenes.
#JusticeforPoppy!
Kim Yong Ho crashes the outdoor 20 year anniversary party for factory workers who once lived in the honeycomb cells near the factory. Obviously distraught he stumbles toward the train tracks while most of the party goers turn up the music and dance. As he shouts, “I’m going back!” the oncoming train suddenly runs in reverse and his life is rewound showing the decisions he could control and the decisions that were ripped away from him.
Director Lee Chang Dong takes the viewer through Kim’s life during the 1980s and 90s. The ROK suffered a traumatic national wound during the times of dictators and martial law, student and union uprisings that led to many of them being arrested and tortured, economic failures, and the shocking Gwangju Massacre. Kim was thoroughly unlikeable, a man filled to overflowing with self-loathing who had nothing left to give but contempt. He felt no mercy had been shown to him so he showed none either. He had done things for which the stench and blood never left him. The backward running train seemingly appeared as a specter of the future at key interludes.
As Lee peeled back the layers of Kim’s life, I’m sure I was supposed to feel empathy for him. Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, “Life is an ironic tragedy. It has to be lived forward but only makes sense in reverse.” We can use past experiences to create a path for the future. Some misfortunes can lead to growth and better decision making or they can completely dismantle a soul. Kim chose the latter. Every stupid decision he made just added to the weight of his suffering and the suffering of those around him. He could have chosen atonement but instead he chose selfishness, cruelty, and bone crushing hopelessness.
Peppermint Candy showed the unflinching violence that sadistic policemen and soldiers, and a jealous husband committed on other people. The harrowing times played a hand in Kim’s trajectory, but he played a larger hand in the act of bleeding out his own humanity. He never took responsibility or asked for forgiveness, never chose a better path. No one forced him to make the horrific decisions he chose so I for one shed no tears for him. I know Lee must have liked his full circle motif, but the story would have played out better for me if he’d traveled back to the furthest moment and worked his way to the present chronologically. Overall, this film was well made and Sul Kyung Gu gave a stellar performance. But I was unable to absolve Kim by saying he was simply a victim of the times he lived in.
12 August 2025
Trigger warnings: Frontal nudity-male and female. Sexual situations. Torture scenes.
#JusticeforPoppy!
Was this review helpful to you?
