AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

Peppermint Candy (1999), directed by Lee Chang-dong, portrays the aching need for South Koreans to go back. Despite how rapidly South Korea progressed into a democratic nation of luxury and success, this movie shows that the repression and scars of military rule and dictatorship is a stain on the people of Korea that is not so easily removed.  

Peppermint Candy emphasizes this need for South Koreans to go back through its use of the camera as a metaphor. Main character Yong ho aspires to be a photographer, but as he grows up and suffers through the turmoil and repression of Korea’s military dictatorship, this desire disappears as he is forced to abandon his dream in order to comply with what the nation wants. He refuses the camera on multiple occasions throughout the movie, as if to rid himself of that innocence, because he knows that the life he is to carry out now has to be in the nation’s image. However, his initial desire to become a photographer shows Yong ho’s want to capture slices of the country’s history and project them, which is what Peppermint Candy essentially achieves. As the movie takes viewers back through his traumatic past it also displays South Korea’s history. Yong ho’s need for remembrance is made clear at the beginning of the movie when, after familiarly gazing up at the train going past, he takes his own life in a sad attempt to go back to the past, and we see where it all went wrong for Yong ho.  

The unstoppable train in the movie is an attempt to cover up the shameful past of Korean history. The train is symbolic throughout the movie, appearing during every major event in Yong ho’s life and signaling the return of the past. As the train rolls forward during scenes of flashback, the surrounding setting is moving backward. This indicates that the progress of democratization was at the cost of Korean lives; its never-ending forward movement contradictory to the mentality of those who suffered. The train also implies that there is no deviating from this path of traumatization and destruction; there is no stopping the continuous forward movement of Korea trying to forget its past but not succeeding. As the nation tried its hardest to hide the painful past with promises of success and fast progressing democratization, the people became distraught with unfulfilled attempts at making happiness, which is why Yong ho, and many others during that time, committed suicide.

Another important theme that ran through the movie was the notion that money can’t buy happiness. Despite there being rapid economic growth in 1994, Yong ho is not as happy as he apparently should be with his business booming. He and his wife of the time are both cheating on each other, yet he is hypocritically violent to her when he discovers, further proving that the negative effects of war, massacre and Korean history are not easily forgotten, but are stuck in his and other Koreans’ hearts. Money can’t buy happiness, but is exactly what the nation tries to persuade to the people who suffered.  Democratisation and modernisation may initially bring happiness, but Koreans cant grab hold of these false promises or move forward until they go back and remember all that happened.

The peppermint candy that is sent to Yong ho by his lover during his army service is very significant. The candy portrays industrial labour, but also nostalgia and innocence. However, it is trod on and crushed in the army; a metaphor of Yong ho’s innocence and life as he once knew it being crushed by the system. Being in the army is the beginning of the dark changes Yong ho undergoes in his life. Torture, loss of self, pride and morals, even accidentally killing a student during the Gwangju massacre-which is a massive turning point in his life, all lead Yong ho into a pit of turmoil and despair. The candy being trod upon signifies where Yong ho used to be almost ‘feminine’, a loving, young innocent boy with dreams to become a photographer, who suddenly gets a wake up call when this image is crushed.  He felt he had to become more ‘masculine’ in order to fit into the army, and Korea’s society itself. This image the nation required causes Yong ho to harden his heart to life, people, love and himself.  

"It's hard to take the smell off”, a quote from a police co-worker joking after Yong ho’s first torture on a victim. Not only was this quote intended to be about the smell from the student that he was torturing during his days as a corrupt cop, but a metaphor about the whole movie’s plot. The smell of war, martial law and military dictatorship is not going to come out. So do the Koreans just get used to it? Deal with it? Because this smell; this stain, is stuck with them forever. The progress of Korea’s democratization was a sad, broken time involving thousands of deaths from massacres, protests and uprisings before it was achieved. The end result showing in the forms of anguish, trauma, and resistance. The nation tried hard to clean the stain and rid the country of the smell, but as the movie cleverly illustrates, the smell doesn’t come out.

In conclusion, my opinion is that Peppermint Candy clearly showed a side of Korea that would rather be hidden or forgotten by the government, but remembered by the people. It painted a picture of a broken, tragic and utterly desperate man, but also of Korea at the time. Despite the progression, the people do not forget the repression. This movie portrayed the ugly and scarring effects of war, using one man to represent the mentality, suffering, and cruel lives of those who suffered through the nations’ tough road to democratisation.

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