#PeppermintCandy chronicles key events in the life of Kim Young-ho. It opens with Kim stumbling into his school reunion outing near an idyllic creek under the railroad tracks. After making a scene, he throws himself in front of an oncoming train. Tracing backward into 20 years, it shows the dehumanizing effect that the systematic violence has on a person. It's hard to believe that Kim was once a young man who liked looking at wild flowers and wanted to be a photographer. The Gwangju Masssacre in 1980 in which thousands of pro-democracy students lost their lives by the military regime, deeply scarred a generation of Koreans. Peppermint Candy deals with it in personal storytelling that is amazingly effective. Its cumulative power in making us sympathize w/ this deeply detestable person is quite something. #LeeChangdong is a gifted writer/director whose use of 'time traveling' device is much more elegant & resonant here than the likes of Memento and Irreversible. #koreancinema