South Korea is a very prosperous country. In the past couple decades, the country has experienced rapid growth and development economically, socially, and politically. We see its influence in technology in the form of Samsung, Hyundai, Kia, semiconductors, etc. We see influences in the social world with Kpop, food, Kdramas, and movies. This is because in the modern world, the government backs these developments greatly. But Korea has also faced a great deal of struggles throughout its history other than the war.
To learn more about this, me and my language partner chose to continue on the path of movies and watch the newly released movie 서울의 봄 (dir trans: Seoul’s Spring, known as: 12.12 The Day). This movie is based on the true events of the coup d’etat by 전두환 (Chun doo hwan) to become the 5th “President” of Korea. The movie essentially goes through the events that happened that led to Chun doo-hwan’s eventual rise in power.
The previous “president” (Park Chung-hee, also a dictator), was assassinated and Chun was placed in charge of the investigations to find the ones responsible for his death thus giving him access to much of the country’s secrets and military. On top of that, he also formed 하나회 (Hanahoe: The Group of One) which was essentially a secret organization/club within the military comprising of military leaders that followed in Chun doo-hwan’s beliefs. Together, they stormed Seoul, the capital of South Korea, with little to no opposition because of Hanahoe’s influence and staged a coup on December 12, 1979. The movie portrays one military leader, the capital garrison’s commander Jang Tae-wan (Lee tae-shin in the movie) who opposed Chun doo-hwan’s mutiny but to no avail. Famously, he ends his resistance describing himself as a “criminal who failed to uphold his duties as the commander of the Capital Garrison Command.”
The movie was a fantastic portrayal of how weak Korea’s political structure was. Everyone thought that after Park Jung-hee’s assassination a new beginning for the country would begin. A spring for the country that endured so much hardship, hence: 서울의 봄. But unfortunately, only a new period of darkness began as the 4th president barely lasted a year. Furthermore, the country to this day still faces support for Dictator Chun by extremist groups, which is partly why the movie had to use pseudonyms for all the characters to avoid any lawsuit from these figures, many of which are still alive and living fantastic, prosperous lives without any punishment.
In Korea alone, the film performed exceptionally well becoming the biggest movie in the country in 2023. In fact there was a popular challenge in Korea where people would watch the movie and record their heartbeat and blood pressure throughout to show others the amount of stress and anger the film generated. The film also released internationally and also did relatively well. The film deals with themes of patriotism and democracy, something that I think many Americans would enjoy.
Overall, the movie was fun but it also showed me the side of Korea that many people do not know or choose to reject and deny. The history behind a country is extremely important as it shows how it developed to become the successful nation it is today, and it at the cost of many lives and struggles of the innocent, and this movie showed exactly that.
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