starring Song Kang-Ho, Thomas Kretschmann
directed by Jang Hoon
138 minutes
A German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter (Thomas Kretschmann) hired South Korean taxi driver Kim Man-seob (Dong Kang-ho) in May 1980 to drive him to Gwangju where peaceful protests against the repressive South Korean government were brutally being repressed by the police and the army. Hinzpeter documented what he saw with a film camera. and stayed in Gwangju for over 24 hours before he left with Kim Man-seob who drove him back to Seoul.
This movie is based on a true story but there were some liberties taken with the actual events. The parts having to do with the Gwangju Uprising itself are reportedly accurate.
I knew nothing about the Gwangju Uprising before watching this movie.
The two men never saw each other again after Kretschmann left South Korea in 1980. Kretschmann returned to South Korea and looked for Kim but was unable to locate him.
Kretschmann died in 2016. Kim Seung-pil, the son of Kim Man-seob, came forward after this movie was released and revealed that his father died in 1984.
This movie pushed the bounds of reality in the final act but prior to that I was very moved by it.
Notes
I have seen Song Kang-Ho in three other films, but only one of them in the past 10 years. That was Parasite (2019). The other two films were Memories of Murder (2003) and Mr. Vengeance (2002).
I have seen Thomas Kretschmann in two other films. Both of them were MCU films in which he played Baron Strucker.
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