[movie 2007] Brilliant Vacation / May 18 (화려한 휴가)

[Guest a4sano]

I think its almost impossible to include every detail of the Gwangju uprising in a movie. In "May 18" it looked as if the protesters were enjoying their rallies against the army. I'm not sure if they actually were seeing how I wasn't born in 1980 but when focusing on this terrible event I thought it was more clever to show the after-effects and how things became after the uprising. The psychological effects it had on survivors and the victim families.

[Guest Epikt]

I think its almost impossible to include every detail of the Gwangju uprising in a movie.

It's not the goal anyway. Or you're making a documentary (btw, do you know documentaries on Kwangju ?).

That's why (that's a reason of many, this movies isn't worth only for its historical content) A Petal was good. It's not a strict historical reconstitution, it don't pretend to be exhaustive, and in a way it shows a very partial and subjective vision of the riots. Just like you said, dealing with the after-effects tells more about the contemporary Korean society than the actual facts of the uprising (thus, Peppermint Candy's structure is really clever). Focusing on what took to this situation can be interesting too.

PS : you might be interested by the short novel A Petal was based on : There a Petal Silently Falls by Choe Yun. It's realy good, and the English translation will be publish on may 2008.

[shirley]

is the A Petal available on DVD . ?

btw the DVD for May 18 .er is there a normal edition going to be release .because i am not sure if i need a 32 pages photobook hm but i do want to watch the documentaries ..

[Guest Epikt]

is the A Petal available on DVD . ?

Unfortunatly no.

There is a DVD produced by the KOFIC, but for cultural promotion (what promotion, if public screening is prohibited ???) and academic research only. So it's unavailable on stores. You can find a copy of this DVD here, but you'll agree it's not a solution.

[Guest kdramafanusa]

btw the DVD for May 18 .er is there a normal edition going to be release .because i am not sure if i need a 32 pages photobook hm but i do want to watch the documentaries ..

I haven't seen the normal edition yet, but I think it should be available (maybe at a later date).

I wonder if the special features are subbed though --- DVD descriptions are often not clear on this detail.

[Guest puppylove]

it was an okay film, nothing spectacular...

it's the very basic cinema theme of "dont' mess with the gov't" reminder.

ugh.

[Guest a4sano]

Just like you said, dealing with the after-effects tells more about the contemporary Korean society than the actual facts of the uprising (thus, Peppermint Candy's structure is really clever). Focusing on what took to this situation can be interesting too.

Oh wow, how rare from someone to mention Peppermint Candy, perhaps one of the most deepest films I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I don't know any documentary on Gwangju or any films to that show the event from a political standpoint.

[Guest Epikt]

OK...

You all know I wasn't expecting anything from this movie, except to be just decent. It's not. This movie is a total [insert the most hateful insult you know and even more]. I won't be long, maybe someday when I'll recover, afterall this movie already took two of three years of my lifetime making me so irritated.

This movie pretend to show Kwangju riot and looking to all the Blue Dragon nominations I'm affraid we'll see it shown in history classes, but it gives a stereotypical, without any nuance or reflexion, view. All we see on this movie is "oh my god the evil militaries shot innocent civilians and all the Korean people thet wanted Korea to be free", with the deep sentiment that those militaries are not Korean (and THAT is the point, they are Korean ! how the movie could have forget a such important point ?) but only barbarians from the past dictatorship, and that now thank to Kwangju's martyrs Korea is a glorious democracy so everything's OK.

There is no questionning at all, on the contrary this is nothing but mawkish propaganda.

[YoonShiYoonFan]

I can't imagine something like this happened... I hate mass murders, Japan and Germany have committed mass murders against the Jews and Chinese respectively but the Korean's in this event annihilate their own race! I really can't imagine, I feel so blessed that even the Philippines is a third world country and the crime rate is high because of poverty, This kind of mass murder by the government (killing your own citizens) will not ever happen here...

I wonder what is their motivation to do such crimes... Even some leader ordered them to do so, are the soldiers animals? OMG... I was shocked when I saw this film and checked the history and it is true!

[rubie]

September 11, 2008

Critics judge Secret Sunshine as 2007’s best film

LEE Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine is voted the best film of 2007 by a select group of Korean culture and society critics. KIM Ji-hoon’s May 18 came in second and LEE Myung-se’s Mcompletes an illustrious top three of in total twelve selected Korean films.

Secret Sunshine continued to cement LEE’s name among the great auteur cineastes. The film accumulated numerous awards, culminating in JEON Do-yeon’s best actress crown at Festival de Cannes.

May 18 is exemplary how cinema can represent popular memory and assist in creating alternative histories. The popular film chronicles the Gwangju uprising from the point-of-view of the Gwangju citizens who were branded criminals and vandals by the military government and leading conservative newspapers.

M is an impressive technical achievement of great aesthetic beauty, containing a layered story which plays on memories, love, and reality.

The participants of the annual questionnaire consist of distinguished people from the film industry, film critics and culture academics.

The best foreign film vote went to Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, followed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel, and John Carney’s Once. Eight foreign films were named.

Credits: Yi Ch’ang-ho (KOFIC)

http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/KOFIC/Channel/

[Guest renni72]

"May 18" made me bawl my eyes out. Kim Sang Kyung did well in this movie. All the human stories in the movie made me feel so sorry that they were so misunderstood during the tragic time. Farmers and commoners had no choice but turned to form a citizen army to protect the town they love. They knew they stood no chance against an army.

The script in the movies was memorable too....Just before he died, Yong Dae (one of the characters in the movie) said that it made a scum bag like him a real man to have fought bravely to protect his town.

The priest of the town said, "I want to fight the good fight before going to heaven."

The 2 "Dumb and Dumber" characters bowed in the direction of their hometowns to give their last respect to their mothers back home that scene made me cry. To know their impending death and yet they go headlong into it....

This movie made me use up lots of tissue papers!