On December 3, within a span of six hours, South Korea’s democratically elected President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the imposition of martial law — and then reversed it. The reverberations of Yoon’s decision to suspend civilian rights to protect the country against “anti-state activities plotting rebellion” and pro North Korean forces” are still being felt.
South Korea has lived through several dictators and became an electoral democracy only in 1989. A movie that is thriller-like in its pacing and intensity explores the most notorious such attempt to impose military rule on the country.
12.12: The Day, Kim Sung-su’s blockbuster from 2023, is available on Prime Video. The film’s title refers to the mutiny within the South Korean military that took place on December 12, 1979.
The superbly produced movie stars leading Korean actors Hwang Jung-min as the coup plotter Chun and Jung Woo-sung as Lee, the major general who opposes Chun. 12.12: The Day unfolds as a battle of wills between Chun and Lee.
Hwang Jung-min brilliantly depicts Chun’s ferocious ambition without once tipping over the edge. Chun takes advantage of the political vacuum created by the assassination of South Korean President Park Chung Hee in October 1979 to make his own bid for power. Over the next couple of months, Chun divvies up the Army into loyalists and dissenters. Chun also frames a senior official as a plotter in the president’s murder.
He thinks he’s a king, a senior Army man complains about Chun, who struts about with his hands on his hips. The principled Lee is aghast at Chun’s behaviour, and tries to prevent the units under his command from defecting to Chun’s side. Matters come to a head on December 12.
Much of the action takes place inside various Army barracks. There is a lot of verbal jousting and manoeuvring involved, several telephone conversations. Yet, the film is consistently gripping, its sharp script not only simplifying the plot for viewers but also creating a series of tense stands-off between loyalist and traitor.
The game of good soldier versus bad soldier has several standout scenes that would not be out of place in a gangster drama. These include Chun’s attempt to abduct Lee under the garb of inviting him to dinner. Chun’s joyous expression at the end of this episode reveals just how drunk he is on his power trip.
Another senior general defends himself with a single soldier by his side. Lee finds unit after unit falling under Chun’s spell, but never wavers in trying to protect his country from the rogues in his community.
The film marshals the seductions of mainstream entertainment for a fiercely political exploration of creeping dictatorship. Like several commercial Korean films, 12.12: The Day stands up to power, rather than pandering to it.
The movie is a sobering riposte to anybody attracted to the idea of military rule as a solution to a country’s problems. Men with big ambitions and bigger guns can and will wreak havoc if not controlled, the film shows.
