The news of Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt at instigating martial law shocked the world. With live news feeds on outlets including the BBC, it dominated the global news cycle as South Koreans tried to make sense of what had happened. Ultimately, it was short lived after lawmakers with the help of the public who rushed to Yeouido, Seoul, understanding the severity of the situation, were able to get into the National Assembly and oppose the Marial Law Declaration.

It was a reminder of how precarious democracy remains with memories of the 1980s remaining vivid for a whole generation who fought hard for the changes that ushered in a new democratic era for South Korea. It also illustrated the resilience of Korea’s young but passionate democracy. Martial law was over within hours, though its repercussions are still being felt, and its effects could well shape politics for weeks, months and years to come.

It has been a tumultuous few weeks for the country reflecting Korea’s turbulent modern history with two coup d'états and a vibrant democracy movement. Korean cinema has captured this; from the golden era of the 1960s through a brief period of relaxed censorship that saw films like Obaltan (1960) and The Housemaid (1960) to films that have shed light on the events of the 1980s such as A Taxi Driver (2017) and 1987: When the Day Comes (2017).

This week we will delve into some of these titles beginning with a focus on censorship and dictatorship through Yoon Hyun-mok’s Obaltan and Kim Ki-young’s Hunting for Idiots (1984). It will then turn to martial law profiling O Muel’s Jiseul (2012) and Im Sang-soo’s The President’s Last Bang (2005) and we will conclude by examining the May 18 Democracy Movement as we look at A Petal (1996) and A Taxi Driver.

Censorship and Dictatorship (Obaltan & Hunting for Idiots)

For much of the history of Korean cinema, directors and those in the industry have had to contend with various forms of censorship especially through the autocratic governments of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan. Films deemed too critical of society were interpreted as criticism directed at the government with implied support for the communist ideology in North Korea, which is why Obaltan was initially pulled from screens after its release in 1961. 

Directed by Yu Hyun-mok, it was shot between the fall of Rhee Syngman and the military coup staged by Park Chung-hee in 1960. There was a brief respite in censorship that led to some of most lauded Korean films to be made, which enabled Yu to capture a very dour mood in Obaltan echoing the tone of the Neorealist films of the 1940s and 1950s.  

Set in Seoul after the Korean war, it tells the story of Cheol-ho (Kim Jin-kyu) and how is family – his veteran brother, sister who becomes a prostitute for American soldiers, his pregnant wife, two children and mother who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder – are struggling to make ends meet. Mixing elements of family melodrama and realism, it has become a defining film of its era. It screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1963.

Kim Ki-young’s Hunting for Idiots is an altogether different film reflecting Kim’s idiosyncratic style. Released in 1984, it has been compared to Ha Gil-jong’s The March of Fools (1975) and Lee Jang-ho’s Declaration of Idiot (1983) forming the so-called “Trilogy of Fools in Korean cinema” focusing on characters who are unable to maintain sanity during an era of oppression and censorship. The March of Fools was in fact censored that is documented in Kim Hongjun’s documentary My Korean Cinema (2002). 

In Kim’s Hunting for Idiots, it follows two patients who escape from a psychiatric hospital played by Kim Byeong-hak and Bae Gyu-bin who travel around the country in search for a deserted island. During their quest they spend time as miners in a small town where they from a relationship with a woman (Eom Sim-jeong). 

Capturing an era of frustration and oppression, the two men strive for something that is ultimately a fantasy. Filled with Kim’s unforgettable imagery through his use of colors and motifs, it takes a different direction compared to a film like The March of Fools also delving into themes of gender that is echoed in his wider work.

Martial Law (Jiseul & The President’s Last Bang)

South Korea has a history of martial law that was once again brought to light after Yoon declared martial law on December 3, 2024. This was the 16th time the law had been enacted since the establishment of Republic of Korea with Rhee Syngman declaring it a total of ten times while Park Chung-hee issued the order four times. It was then declared again following Park’s assassination in October 1979 and extended under Chun Doo-hwan’s new military regime in May 1980 to brutally suppress the protests in Gwangju. 

Martial law has been depicted in many Korean films – a recent famous example is 12.12: The Day (2023) that follows the events after the death of Park Chung-hee, which topped the Netflix chart in Korea in December given how the events being reported in the news appeared to be mirroring what had happened in Korea’s past. 

Going further back, the first enactment of martial law was declared by President Rhee in 1948 two months after the government was established. This was to suppress an uprising on Jeju Island when residents and the Workers’ Party of South Korea started protesting elections oversaw by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea. Taking place between April 1948 and May 1949, the Jeju Uprising led to thousands of deaths.

O Muel’s award-winning Jiseul (2012) turns to these events though focuses on a lesser-known story of a group of villagers who escape the brutality by hiding in a cave but there they are faced with bitterly cold temperatures and extreme hunger. The film also follows the soldiers carrying out the orders; some of whom are beginning to wrestle with their conscience. The independent film features Mun Seok-bum, Hong Sang-pyo, Lee Kyoung-jun and Yang Jeong-won.

As a Jeju native, O Muel is known for his films set on the island (Mermaid Unlimited (2017), Eyelids (2018)) and he is able to capture its unique culture and history. Shot in black and white, its artistic approach adds further poignancy to what remains a disturbing chapter in Korea’s modern history. The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival becoming the first Korean film to do so.

Im Sang-soo’s The President’s Last Bang turns to the assassination of Park Chung-hee that was later also depicted in Woo Min-ho’s The Man Standing Next (2020). Im’s film, however, takes a different tone adopting satire in tacking the events leading up to and the immediate aftermath of the shooting by Park’s friend and Korean Intelligence Agency (KCIA) director Kim Jae-kyu (Baek Yoon-sik). Han Suk-kyu plays Agent Ju, while Kim Eung-soo is Colonel Kim who work with the KCIA director to shoot the president at one of his drinking parties. The late Song Jae-ho also stars as President Park.

Expertly staged and shot, the film remains one of Im Sang-soo’s significant accomplishments, but it ran into censorship woes after Park Chung-hee’s son, Park Ji-man filed a lawsuit against the production company, MK Pictures for its portrayal of President Park. Subsequently, three minutes and fifty seconds of archive footage at the beginning and the end of the film was removed and replaced with a black screen for both its domestic release and screenings overseas. The film was invited to multiple festivals including the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.  

The court ruling was later overturned in 2006, and the film was released in the UK on DVD through Third Window Films with the deleted scenes reinserted.

May 18 Democratization Movement (A Petal ,  A Taxi Driver)

While Korea’s transition from a dictatorship to a democracy in the 1980s and 1990s was a successful one, the events in Gwangju in May 1980 underscore that it came at a great cost with protesters shot by paratroopers when students led protests against the Chun Doo-hwan government demanding democratic freedoms. Although the exact death count is unknown, hundreds if not thousands were killed, and it continues to be a scare on the nation’s history.

What happened in Gwangju would later spur further demonstrations across the country that culminated with the June Democracy Movement in the summer of 1987 captured in 1987: When the Day Comes (2017), which ultimately brought Chun’s government and autocracy to an end. It wouldn’t be until the 1990s, though, when Korea’s first civilian presidents in more than thirty years were elected.

The Gwangju uprising has been the subject of several films tackling it different ways. One of the earliest examples was Jang Sun-woo’s independent film A Petal (1996) based on the short story There a Petal Falls in Silence (1992) by Choe Yun that follows a traumatized girl (Lee Jung-hyun) who follows a construction worker (Moon Sung-keun) everywhere even though he scolds and abuses her. Through flashbacks, we learn what is the source of her trauma: the girl had to abandon her mother who was killed in Gwangju.

It's a challenging viewing experience as it examines the uprising from the perspective of this broken young girl and how it affected the ordinary citizens of Gwangju. Also hard-hitting is Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy (2000) that tells it from the point of view of a man who inadvertently shot a young woman in the city and is left traumatized.

Commercial titles have approached the Gwangju uprising somewhat differently with more melodrama and dramatic set-pieces but have been very effective and moving. This is evident in Jang Hoon’s A Taxi Driver (2017) that was a gargantuan box office hit accruing more than 12 million tickets.

Based on a true story, Song Kang-ho plays, Man-seob, a taxi driver who takes the German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter (Thomas Kretschmann) down to Gwangju so he can report on what’s going on in the city and let the world know. Although Man-seob initially sees it as a way of earning extra cash, once he witnesses firsthand what the military are doing in the city, he becomes determined and is instrumental in ensuring the footage shot by Hinzpeter is broadcasted in Japan by getting him back to Gimpo Airport and out of the country.

Much rests on the performances and Song Kang-ho is able to carry the film like he often does forming that innate connection with his audience, while Thomas Kretschmann also delivers in what is a standout role for a non-Korean in a Korean film.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Editted by Eunha Shim