In Theaters 04.12.2024 or Watch at Home 08.30.2024

Peppermint Candy

Directed by Lee Chang-Dong
Film Movement Classics
1999
129 Minutes
South Korea
Korean
Drama, Classics, Asian

Yongho (Sul Kyung-gu) stares down an oncoming train as twenty years of his life flash before his eyes. Proceeding to move backward in time, Lee’ Chang-dong's acclaimed second directorial feature rewinds the protagonist's loss of humanity - from his fraught, self-hating middle age through his callow teens. The moments in between these events, as seen through the lens of Yongho’s oppressive struggles, mirror South Korea’s traumatic political history during the late 20th century.

An official selection of the Directors' Fortnight selection in Cannes and winner of the Special Prize of the Jury at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, PEPPERMINT CANDY is a powerful work of Korean New Wave cinema that elegizes a generation of marginalized people with “quiet, heartbreaking power” (The New York Times). Presented in a new 4K restoration.

Director & Cast

  • Director: Lee Chang-Dong
  • Starring: Sol Kyung-gu
  • Starring: Moon So-ri
  • Starring: Kim Yeo-jin

Where to Watch

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "The end has a quiet, heartbreaking power..."
    A.O. Scott, The New York Times
  • "Striking, poignant, sad, and uncompromising as ever, Peppermint Candy is a film that stays with you…"
    Andrew Heskins, EasternKicks.com
  • "A raw work that’s like diving into a festering wound. In a good way."
    Josh Slater-Williams, Little White Lies
  • "This is Korea's millennial elegy, filtering its search for times past through a confection no less bittersweet than Proust's madeleine."
    Anton Bitel, Projected Figures
  • "The film offers a heartbreaking drama told in reverse chronology and spanning twenty years in both the life of the main character and the political history of Korea."
    Beth Accomando, KPBS.org
  • "Peppermint Candy laid the groundwork for the polished, more covertly political dramas about marginalized Koreans — be it by age, ability or affluence — that cemented Lee’s auteur label a few years later: Oasis, Secret Sunshine and Poetry."
    Elizabeth Kerr, The Hollywood Reporter
  • "Peppermint Candy is a compelling and powerful work and necessary to any introduction to the Korean New Wave. "
    Rahul Hamid, Senses of Cinema

Now Playing

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Metrograph New York City NY April 12, 2024
American Cinematheque Los Angeles CA April 28, 2024
Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago IL May 3, 2024
TIFF Bell Lightbox Toronto ON May 18, 2024