Saturday, June 22, 2024

Peppermint Candy (1999)

IMDb plot summary: Following a man's suicide, time traverses back to reveal six chapters of his life on why he committed suicide.
Directed by Lee Chang-dong. Starring Sol Kyung-gu, Kim Yeo-jin, and Moon So-ri.

Peppermint Candy traces one man's life backward, starting with a dramatic encounter with a group of old friends and going back to what made him the person he is now. This one took me a long time to care dabout. I like the narrative device of moving back in time and following where this character comes from and what made him who he is, but I just never quite cared enough until the final third of the movie. That final section, especially the war segments, brought out an emotional response that I had not expected. Those scenes were done extremely effectively and suddenly made the whole character snap into place a little bit more. Now, I do wish that I had had more engagement in the character before that happened, for it to really have the impact it needed. Perhaps this is one that I'll need to rewatch again at some time now that I have a little bit of a stronger understanding of this character and the life that we're watching him live.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Peppermint Candy > The Invention of Lying
Peppermint Candy < Dark Passage
Peppermint Candy < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Peppermint Candy < Sleepers
Peppermint Candy < Talladega Nights
Peppermint Candy > Laal Singh Chadha
Peppermint Candy > Swingers
Peppermint Candy > EdTV
Peppermint Candy < 12 Angry Men (1997)
Peppermint Candy < The Prestige
Peppermint Candy < The War Zone
Peppermint Candy < John Carter
Final spot: #1846, or 53%.

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