Review | 12.12: The Day movie review – events leading to South Korea’s darkest period recounted in frenetic political blockbuster
- South Korean general Chun Doo-hwan’s infamous power grab after the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee plunged the nation into 8 years of chaos
- Hwang Jung-min plays the tyrant and Jung Woo-sung the tireless commander as the movie unflinchingly recounts the events preceding South Korea’s darkest days
4/5 stars
Embodying one of the most notorious villains in Korean history, Hwang Jung-min gives a ferocious performance in Kim Sung-su’s political blockbuster 12.12: The Day.
Dramatising one of the darkest days in the nation’s recent past, the star-studded film details the apocalyptic events that followed the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in October 1979.
Instead of ushering in a “Seoul Spring” of hopeful change, a stand-off between senior politicians and military leaders culminated in the coup d’état of December 12, as Major General Chun Doo-hwan seized power and steered the country into its darkest chapter to date.
Real names have been tweaked slightly in Kim’s otherwise faithful retelling, which became the biggest domestic hit of 2023 in South Korea.