Film Review: "1987: When the Day Comes" (2017).

"The truth must be told." This is 1987: When the Day Comes. This South Korean political thriller film directed by Jang Joon-hwan, and written by Kim Kyung-chan. In 1987 Korea, under an oppressive military regime, a Seoul National University Linguistics student named Park Jong-cheol (박종철) is killed during a police interrogation involving waterboarding techniques. Government officials are quick to cover up the death and order the body to be cremated. A prosecutor who is supposed to sign the cremation release, raises questions about the twenty-one-year-old student dying of a heart attack, and begins looking into the case for the truth. Despite a systematic attempt to silence everyone involved in the case, the truth gets out, causing an eruption of public outrage.

From June 10 to June 29, 1987 saw the nationwide democracy movement June Struggle (6월 민주항쟁), also known as the June Democracy Movement or June Democratic Uprising, generate mass protests throughout South Korea. On June 9, as demonstrations intensified, Yonsei University students swore to take action and protested at the university. During the protest, a tear gas grenade mortally wounded Business Administration student Lee Han-yeol (이한열) by penetrated his skull. In critical condition, Lee died on July 5, after the regime had agreed to the people's demands. After his death, he quickly became a symbol of the subsequent protests over the weeks that followed. On July 9, a national funeral was held for Lee and over one million citizens attended. The demonstrations forced the ruling government to hold elections and institute other democratic reforms which led to the establishment of the Sixth Republic, the present day government of South Korea. On June 10th, the military regime of President Chun Doo-hwan announced its choice of Roh Tae-woo as the next president. The public designation of Chun's successor was seen as a final affront to a delayed and deferred process to revise the South Korean constitution to permit direct election of the President. Although pressure on the regime, in the form of demonstrations by students and other groups, had been building for some time, the announcement finally triggered massive and effective protests. Unwilling to resort to violence before the 1988 Olympic Games, and (correctly) believing that Roh could win competitive elections anyway given divisions within the opposition, Chun and Roh acceded to the key demands of direct presidential elections and restoration of civil liberties. Although Roh was duly elected as president that December with a bare plurality, the democratic consolidation of South Korea was fully underway.

The film stars Kim Yoon-seok, Ha Jung-woo, Yoo Hae-jin, Kim Tae-ri, Park Hee-soon, Lee Hee-joon, and Kim Eui-sung. The lively and rousing performances of the film's versatile cast carries the film and its ever relevant pro-democracy message.

The film is a very hard to watch, although highly realistic film, that uses shock in order to present a clear political message. The film picks a subject ingrained in the Korean subconscious while retaining relevance.

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