Film Review: "12.12: The Day" ("서울의 봄") (2023).

"1979. Seoul. Everything changed that night." This is 12.12: The Day (서울의 봄). This South Korean historical action drama film written and directed by Kim Sung-su. After the assassination of President Park, martial law has been declared. A coup d’état bursts out by Defense Security Commander Chun Doo-gwang and a private band of officers following him. Capital Defense Commander Lee Tae-shin, an obstinate soldier who believes the military should not take political actions, fights against Chun Doo-gwang to stop him. The conflict between the two grows while military leaders are holding their decision and Defense Minister is gone. In the midst of chaos, the spring of Seoul that everyone longed for heads to unexpected direction.

On December 12, 1979, the military mutiny known as The Coup d'état of December Twelfth (12.12 군사반란), or the "12.12 Military Insurrection", took place. Republic of Korea Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan, commander of the Defence Security Command, acting without authorization from Acting President Choi Kyu-hah, ordered the arrest of General Jeong Seung-hwa, ROK Army Chief of Staff, on allegations of involvement in the assassination of former. After Jeong's capture, 29th Regiment of the 9th Division, along with the 1st Special Forces Brigade and 3rd Special Forces Brigade, invaded downtown Seoul to support the 30th and 33rd Capital Security Group loyal to Chun, then a series of conflicts broke out in the capital. Two of Jeong's allies, Major General Jang Tae-wan (Commander of Army Capital Security Command) and Major General Jeong Byeong-ju (Commander of Army Special Warfare Command), were also arrested by the rebel troops. Major Kim Oh-rang, aide-de-camp of Jeong Byeong-ju, was killed during the gunfight. By the next morning, the Ministry of Defense and Army HQ were all occupied. Chun and his fellow 11th class of Korea Military Academy graduates, such as Major General Roh Tae-woo, commanding general of 9th Infantry Division, and Major General Jeong Ho-yong, were in charge of the Korean military. Chun was supported in the coup and the subsequent consolidation of power by the powerful private club of military officials called Hanahoe. The Coup d'état of December Twelfth and the Coup d'état of May Seventeenth ended the Fourth Republic of South Korea and led to the establishment of the Fifth Republic of South Korea. The coup, alongside the Gwangju Uprising, is the primary justification of Chun's 1995 arrest by the Kim Young-sam administration.

By February 2022, Hwang Jung-min, Jung Woo-sung, Lee Sung-min, Park Hae-joon, Kim Sung-kyun, Kim Eui-sung, Jung Dong-hwan, Ahn Nae-sang, Choi Byung-mo, Park Hoon, Kim Sung-oh, Park Won-sang, Jeon Su-ji, Jung Man-sik, Jung Hae-in, and Lee Joon-hyuk were cast in a historical action drama about the Coup d'état of December Twelfth, with Kim Sung-su attached as writer and director. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in July. Director Kim Sung-su revealed at the press conference that he was a senior in high school at the time of the Coup d'état of December Twelfth and was living in Hannam-dong, Seoul, where the incident occurred. He left his house and was walking around the neighborhood, and when he heard a gunshot from the Army Chief of Staff's official residence, he went there, but the soldiers controlled it. He was scared because he heard gunshots all night and he couldn't get close, but he was full of curiosity and questions at the time because he couldn't figure out what was going on, which led him to make this film.

The film stars Hwang Jung-min, Jung Woo-sung, Lee Sung-min, Park Hae-joon, Kim Sung-kyun, Kim Eui-sung, Jung Dong-hwan, Ahn Nae-sang, Choi Byung-mo, Park Hoon, Kim Sung-oh, Park Won-sang, Jeon Su-ji, Jung Man-sik, Jung Hae-in, and Lee Joon-hyuk. A top cast deliver excellent performances all-round but it's Hwang Jung-min and Jung Woo-sung who really shined. Jung Woo-sung's portrayal of Lee is excellent as it fully encapsulates the woes of any person bounded by circumstances such as his.

Throughout the film we mostly see Defense Security Commander Chun Doo-gwang through the eyes of his cronies and victims- as a crazed psychopath who cannot be stopped and cannot be negotiated with...a fitting metaphor for the South Korean dictatorship as a whole. The film shys away from the bullet points that historians have recorded in favor of the unremembered individuals whose actions contributed to free elections in South Korea. Slick and accomplished, the film is also single-minded and forthright in its intentions, propelled by an exasperated nation which demanded more of its public officials. South Korea's fraught transition from one dictatorship to another on December 12, 1979, is shaped with fictional detail and sometimes excessive melodrama, but as a political thriller Kim Sung-su's film has a tense urgency as the resistance slowly turns the tide. The filmmakers turn these historical events into a satisfying, fast-paced, gripping and smart thriller, focusing on a myriad of characters all united by their activism and disgust for the men in charge. Heartbreaking and inspiring, dark and illuminating, the film shows us how the power and beauty of cinema can capture a moment in time, and its ability to frame and glorify the human spirit. The power struggles between all the above characters, along with the constant shifting of both loyalties and the upper hand, are the backbone of an intricate script, which is concluded, in the most spectacular fashion. The film may be painstaking in the way that he reconstructs Korea's past, but the story that he tells is also a parable of power and its abuses that resonates beyond the specificities of the Fifth Republic to any and every era. Kim Sung-su's screenplay is clever in the way it uses a straightforward premise as a hook for the deeper and more troubling elements of this story. The film is an exceptional mainstream film that uses the true-story setting to present a captivating political thriller whose atmosphere, acting and direction will satisfy all viewers. Overall, the film's involving period detail and simmering intrigue allow it to stand alongside those classic American political thrillers of the 1970s.

Simon says 12.12: The Day (서울의 봄) receives:

Also, see my review for Asura: The City of Madness (아수라).