It is said that this year's Chinese New Year cinema movies have a good reputation, but the first movie of the new year still chose this long-awaited "Seoul Spring".
Because I'm too curious, why can this work become the "savior masterpiece" of Korean films?
In the case of a dismal box office for Korean films last year, this movie was born, exceeding 10 million moviegoers in just one month of release, and is now among the top ten box office in Korean film history.
While earning a lot of money at the box office, **word-of-mouth is also a lot of praise, and it is praised as the best Korean film of 2023 (it is estimated that it will sweep all the important awards of this year's major Korean film festivals).
Korean films are notoriously daring to shoot, no matter what history is a treasure trove of materials for film and television creators, there are no taboos.
"Seoul Spring" involves a real historical event that is familiar to Koreans, but can audiences in other countries be equally attracted by this history and immersed in the plot?
After the movie was launched, it quickly rose to No. 1 in Douban's weekly word-of-mouth movie list1, 20,000 people have seen it so far, and the score is still firmly maintained at 87 points.
Director and screenwriter Kim Sung-so has sharpened his sword for seven years since "Flu" and "Asura", and handed over an almost perfect answer sheet on "how to let more people know about this history".
On the premise of knowing the historical results, the director still shot the excitement of the arrow, and the tension and oppression are overwhelming!
The turning point of each event is full of dramatic tension, except for the two opposing protagonists with a rock-solid mentality, the other rabble are like clowns jumping off the beam, and after reading it, I checked their true endings, and the whole person is even worse (especially the runaway minister and the weak second chief, both of whom died happily).
There are actually no spoilers to spoil the plot, but simply put, it happened 9 hours on the night of December 12, 1979.
How to make these 9 hours thrilling is a test of the director's skills, and I think this is also the key to the success of this film.
The director only took about half an hour to explain the background of the story, since the assassination of South Korea's former ** Park Chung-hee, South Korea briefly appeared for a period of "Seoul Spring" (the full story of this history can be seen in the movie "The Ministers of Namsan").
At this time, Chun Doo-hwan was also the head of the Security Command and the head of the investigation of the ** assassination case, which can be said to be a combination of military power and intelligence power.
In the nine-hour standoff that followed, Chun Doo-hwan's intelligence network monitored almost all communications, and even the secret combat communications within the army were also monitored.
The first police commander Lee Tae-shin played by Zheng Yusheng is the suppressor, and all combat deployments are transparent, how can this be played?
Lee Tae-shin's prototype is Major General Jang Tae-wan, who is a tragic and even lonely character in the movie.
Even the Minister of Defense "defected" to Chun Doo-hwan's side, but he still adhered to his duty as a soldier and fought until the last moment.
It can be seen that the then Chief of Staff of the South Korean Army, Jung Seung-wha (played by Lee Sung-min), chose Lee Tae-shin as an important commander of the first police, which is indeed a discerning eye.
only used a very expressive line in the movie, and explained that Lee Tae-shin and Chun Doo-hwan are definitely not all the way.
Because Li was born as a "Class A officer", he was ridiculed for being "a little tendonic".
Lee Tae-shin's later ending was not very good, he was forced to retire, his high-achieving son mysteriously "disappeared", and his wife committed suicide after his death.
In addition to the thrilling plot, every character in this movie has a historical prototype, even if it is only Lee Jun-hyuk and Ding Hae-in, who have very few scenes, the subtitles are marked.
The lineup of all the acting cafes ensures that this work does not have any acting shortcomings, and the random combination between the protagonist lineup is a well-known classic Korean movie.
Lee Sung-min is Park Chung-hee, who was shot in "The Ministers of Namsan", and in this film, he is "reborn" as Jung Seung-ho, the number one in the military; Of course, there is also "** is also 8."A classic with 7 points.
Jung Woo-sung and Hwang Jung-min, who are opposite each other in this movie, are also opponents of each other in "Asura" directed by Kim Sung-so.
What made that night's events so important was that it put an end to the glorious "Seoul Spring," delayed the democratization of South Korea, and sparked a series of repressions.
Of course, these events have all been made into film and television works, and those who are interested can watch them.
Seoul Spring is not only an important part of filling the gap in South Korea's Fifth Republic, but also adds a classic to the political thriller genre that Korean films are best at.
I have recommended 10 high-scoring blockbusters in South Korea before, if you are interested, you can click here).