Analysis Of Peppermint Candy

1944 Words4 Pages

Peppermint Candy, a film by Yi Ch’ang-Dong (Lee Chang-Dong) is an interesting movie that is full of dramatic events. It emphasizes the great effects of the Korean dictatorship on the society. It left a huge impact on the Korean society and history. It is a film that relates recent Korean history through the protagonist’s personal history. It tells us about the life of Korean society for the past twenty years through the adventure of a protagonist, Young-ho. Throughout this film, we can understand why the main character Young-ho, has a twisted personality and how the choice of technique can influence the story of the film. South Korea is a country that has rapidly developed. But the country also experienced military dictatorship in the 1980s …show more content…

This oppressive and manipulative system diminishes his individuality and turns him into a person who lives without any hope and love. The young, moral man turns into a brutal, violent man. He is expose to militarized masculinity as early as in the military base during the Gwangju Massacre period. Moreover, these changes happen as a result of economic changes and the military dictatorship in South Korea. The violent and turbulent events under the military dictatorship shape the life of Korean society as well as the life of Young-ho. Young-ho’s masculinity shows how military society influences his personality and his mind after he joins the army. In this movie, it is clearly emphasized how the military took control of Korea in the 1980s and 1990s, and created a militarized society that valued masculine nature. This masculine nature is clearly shown when Young-ho decides to buy a gun and plans to kill someone and takes that person with him before he kills himself. Young-ho also hires a spy to uncover Hong-ja’s affair with another man and harshly abuses her. This event clearly shows that Young-ho uses his violence in his actions. In the Gwangju Massacre scene, the upper-class soldier beats the men, including Young-ho by kicking them and assaulting them. When Young-ho works as a cop and wants to discover the name of a leading pro-democracy activist, he brutally abuses the student protesters. He does that just to get the …show more content…

At first, Sun-im and Young-ho like each other. But, their relationship gets harder and bitter as soon as Young-ho enters the military base. Sun-im sends a bucket of peppermint candy to Young-ho to remind him about his home. One night, the soldiers get a call to go to mysterious battle. Their sergeant abuses them by kicking them and calling them “bastards” and “bitches” while they are having a hard time putting on their gear. Young-ho accidentally spills the peppermint candy from his bucket. He does not have much time to pick up all the candies and the candy breaks into pieces when the soldiers step on it when they are in a hurry. It is a significant event as the peppermint candy represents the innocent world of Sun-im. But then the shattered candy represents the end of innocence in Young-ho’s life. When he is on duty, he accidentally kills an innocent school girl who wanders into the confrontation, just trying to make her way home. This scene gives a huge blow to Young-ho as it is a turning point when he completely loses his innocence. He is now a ruthless, emotionless guy. When he kills the school girl, he also kills the innocent world that he shared with Sun-im. His hands are full of blood. He no longer has the sweet hands that Sun-im admires. He cannot forgive himself. Thus, he rejects Sun-im adamantly as self-punishment. Even though he has already moved away from the innocent world, the memory of her still lives in his

Open Document