Peppermint Candy

           Released in 1999, Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy introduces the life of Young-ho by ‘going back in time’. Unlike other movies that have been shown in class, this movie uses a unique chronology in which the audience is presented with the protagonist’s life in a reverse order. By travelling back in time, the viewers are given the explanation of Young-ho’s personal crisis, aligned with Korea’s political and economic problems, and why Young-ho chooses to commit suicide.

          Throughout the film, the use of symbolism is prevalent. In Magnan-Park’s reading, five essential symbols “…trains, [Young-ho’s] ex-girlfriend Yun Sun-im, peppermint candy, the camera, and Young-ho’s leg wound” (Magnan-Park, 162) show great significance in the seven vignettes. First, the railroad shows up at the end/start of each vignette, showing the path that Young-ho has taken. Second, Sun-im, Young-ho’s first love, represents innocence, and his inescapable past. Third, the peppermint candy, directly linked with Sun-im, “serves as the flavourful mnemic trace” (Magnan-Park, 165). It brings back memories of his first love, and the crushing of the candy during his military service can signify his loss of innocence (which happens by his accidental killing of the female student). Fourth, the camera is a device used to seize the present moment to set up the reality of the past for future (Magnan-Park, 165), and fifth, Young-ho’s leg wound is a painful memory of his accidental killing of a student, as well as a physical would that keeps reminding him of his past (Magnang-Park, 166).

           Although not mentioned by the author, I have found few other symbols while watching the movie: Young-ho’s hand, the vinyl greenhouse. Young-ho’s had is related to his innocence; Sun-im mentions that his hand is stubby and ugly but that with a hand like this, there is no way that he is a bad guy. However, with those hands Young-ho shoots a female student, tortures Myung-sik, and sexually harasses Hong-ja. Such actions make him become ‘impure’ and ‘different’ from what he used to be in 1979. Next, the vinyl greenhouse that Young-ho stays after his divorce is torn and shabby. This can be a symbol that shows the present state (1999) of Young-ho, after he has lost his money (from stock market), his family (from divorce) etc.

           Some questions that ran through my mind while watching the movie was, if Young-ho was given the chance to “go back” in his life, which moment would he have chosen? If he were able to restart from the past, would things have changed? Or would he have become the same person due to same historical background? Also, why the railroad, that has a fixed path? Does that mean that his life was set to follow a certain route? Last but not least, in the ending, he lies down on the ground, looking up the trail way, crying; what would be the meaning of his tears? A foreshadow of his future?