Review for Peppermint Candy

Introduction

For April 2010, Third Window Films returns to the output of director Chang-Dong Lee, whose quirky romance Oasis they released last year. Peppermint Candy was made two years earlier in 1999, released for the 1st of January 2000, and just like Oasis garnered both critical acclaim, and several awards. Also like Oasis it stars So-ri Moon and Kyung-gu Sol. Oasis, with it's offbeat tale of romance between an ex-convict and a girl afflicted with cerebral palsy was entertaining, rewarding, and to be quite frank pretty tough going at times. With Peppermint Candy I was hoping for something a little lighter and less emotionally weighted. Peppermint Candy begins with the suicide of the main character…


Kim Youngho is the main character, who in a bedraggled suit, turns up to a 20-year company reunion picnic, staggers his way through a painful karaoke, then climbs up onto a railway bridge and waits for a train. His final words, "I'm going back!" And so we do, as the film takes us back through his life, through twenty years, as a briefly successful businessman, husband and father, as a tough hard-nailed cop, as an eager new recruit to the force, his military service, and that original company picnic twenty years ago. We see the twists that his life has taken, the events and adversities that have shaped his life, as well as those fleeting moments of happiness. And somewhere in that past is the reason why Youngho felt it necessary to end his life in such a traumatic way.

Picture

Peppermint Candy gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic NTSC picture. The NTSC means a slightly lower resolution of course, but in this age of flat panel displays, the whole issue of CRT switching is a non-issue. To be honest, I by far prefer an NTSC transfer to a half-baked standards conversion, so seeing the clarity of Peppermint Candy, the strong colours, the sharp defined edges was better than ghosting and judder. Best of all, I didn't notice any striking interlacing artefacts, as has been reported on the Region 1 disc. That said, there were a couple of moments of softness to the image, and there may have been a smidge of edge enhancement. But by and large the image quality is most acceptable.


I did have some issues with pixellation and black frames on my Sony player, which were absent on my Panasonic. I put that down to a review disc that came through the mail network with more than its fair share of scuff marks, but you might want to keep an eye out for that regardless.

Sound

You have the option of DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 Korean, with optional English subtitles. The subtitles are on by default, and you'll have to switch them off by your remote, as there is no menu option for that. Peppermint Candy is a dialogue-centric piece, but the surrounds are suitably effective for the ambience and music, and there are no issues to speak of, not even a scuffed disc could cause dropouts.

Extras

There is the Making of Peppermint Candy, which lasts 48 minutes, and which I have to admit that I didn't watch in its entirety. It looks like your usual such featurette, with interviews with the cast and crew, behind the scenes footage, and clips from the film, with a ponderous narration from voiceover man's Korean cousin. The thing about Peppermint Candy is that it's ambiguous; it leaves it for you to decide, which is something that I applaud in films like this. The problem here is that voiceover man has already decided, and he in no uncertain terms shares with you what this film is all about. It's tantamount to a spoiler, even after the fact, and I didn't appreciate being told what the film was. Fortunately, you buy this disc for the film, not the featurette. I'm guessing that there are points of interest to be had in this extra, but I didn't watch enough of it to make certain.

You also get the trailer for Peppermint Candy, and that's your lot.

Conclusion

Peppermint Candy is a film told in reverse, very much like Memento. Except of course that Peppermint Candy was released first, and while Memento was all about the mystery, Peppermint Candy is much more of a character study, beginning with a tragedy and then gradually unveiling the layers of a complex man, the twists and turns in his life that led him down such a dark and self-destructive path. Of course with a film like this, discussing the plot invites too many spoilers, and this is most definitely a story that you do not want spoiled. But I have to admit that I loved the way the film was structured, a sequence of events painting a picture of a certain character, yet leaving one or two questions unanswered. The step to the past answers those questions, but paints a wholly different picture, and asks new questions in turn, leading to the next set of revelations as we go back through Youngho's life.


It calls for a powerful performance from Kyung-gu Sol, or rather performances, as he is in essence re-inventing the character for each successive stage in Youngho's life, the broken and suicidal man, the desperate man pushed to the edge, the successful, jaded, and hypocritical business and family man, the brutal and ruthless cop, the wet behind the ears new recruit, the army draftee who is horribly out of his depth, and the idealistic and hopeful young factory worker. Twenty years of his life are explored, and as you would expect, there is one common thread running through his life, a young girl named Sunim, with whom he once shared his dreams and hopes.


Throughout his life, it's as if he's been both running from, and at the same time trying to hold onto those dreams, and of course it's that internal tension that eventually dooms him. But as we work back through his life, only tantalising glimpses and hints are given as to what caused such torment. When the answer is revealed, it's both surprising and predictable. Peppermint Candy was something of a revelation for me; its detailed examination of one man's character generates mixed feelings. It isn't every film that manages to make me loathe, and despise, feel sorry for, empathise with, rejoice with, feel fear for, and feel hopeful for just one character. But seeing these facets of Youngho unpeeled through the 130-minute runtime does just that.


I also like the ambiguity of the conclusion, the determined featurette voiceover man not withstanding. Is this just a narrative device used by the director, is this Youngho's life flashing before his eyes just before the train hits, or is it something more? It's fun trying to figure the film out, and arguing about it in the pub afterwards. But cute storytelling devices aside, this film would be nothing without the story and the character, and that is where Peppermint Candy soars.