At a twenty-year reunion of friends, one of them, Yongho, dampens the festivities. He climbs onto a railroad bridge, and as he is about to jump into the path of an approaching train, shouts, "I'm going back." And so the film does - in seven sections and in reverse chronology from 1999 to 1979. In epic style, it covers the dissolution of a man and the development of a nation. Lee Chang-Dong, the writer-director, situates the critical point in Korea's lurch toward democracy as the 1980 massacre of students and workers in Kwangju. Abetted by a spectacular performance by Sol Kyung-Gu, Peppermint Candy is an electrifying testament to the candor and vitality of the "new" Korean cinema. The title is ironic: the film astringent.

South Korea, 1999. 129 min.