Peppermint Candy
All-Time Favorites
•
2h 10m
Directed by Lee Chang-dong | 130 mins | 1999
Opening on a shocking scene of implied suicide, Lee’s sophomore feature proceeds to move backward in time, its reverse chronology following its protagonist’s unhappiness to its source, following him from the end of the ’70s to the close of the ’90s—years of enormous transformation in South Korea—and on a trajectory from youthful romanticism to the cynicism and disenchantment of middle age. A character study that doubles as an allegorical history of a South Korea beset by trauma after trauma, anchored by Sul Kyung-gu’s sensitive and versatile central performance.
Up Next in All-Time Favorites
-
The Competition
Directed by Claire Simon | 121 mins | 2016
The Competition begins, significantly, with the image of a locked gate—that of La Fémis, one of the most prestigious film schools in the world, offering hands-on training from working professionals and accepting only 40 students per year from hundreds o... -
Debut, or, Objects of the Field of De...
Directed by Julian Castronovo | 77 mins | 2025
In this irreverent, deliciously vertiginous docufiction caper—the beguiling, Rotterdam and Doc Fortnight-selected debut of Julian Castronovo—the writer-director plays a version of himself who becomes entangled in an "F for Fake"-indebted mystery. On... -
The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes
Directed by the Quay Brothers | 101 mins | 2004
“Absolutely entrancing!!!” Guy Maddin closed his "Film Comment" review of the Quay Brothers’s second feature with a tripled exclamation—a testament to the rare and painstaking artistry they bring to their signature blend of stop-motion and live act...
