Peppermint Candy Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Peppermint Candy Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 25, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of The Poetry of Lee Chang-Dong: Four Films.

Lee Chang-dong is another one of those perhaps strangely lesser known names not just among the so-called "unwashed masses", but potentially even among some supposed film cognoscenti, despite the fact that he is one of his native country South Korea's more notable filmmakers and also despite the fact that the international recognition Chang-dong has received from any number of festivals and other annual ceremonies means scrolling through a list of nominations and actual awards bestowed on Chang-dong can take some considerable time. Film Movement is therefore hopefully aiding and abetting a wider appreciation of Chang-dong's often fascinating filmography by offering an aggregation of four of his early works. As of the writing of this review, and kind of ironically given the overall title of this collection, it looks like only one of the films in the set, Chang-dong's lyrical 2010 opus Poetry, has had a previous Region A release on Blu-ray, in this case a 2011 release from Kino Lorber.

If a train provided the setting for a "meet cute" between prospective lovers in Chang-dong's directorial debut Green Fish, there's a somewhat more sinister use of that mode of transportation in Peppermint Candy which might be jokingly referred to as "end cute", since after a somewhat puzzling opening vignette, the film at the very least alludes to focal character Kim Yong-ho (Sol Kyung-gu) standing on a track in front of a rapidly advancing locomotive in an obvious suicide attempt. The film then proceeds (albeit in reverse chronology) to document a series of events that led Young-ho to this devastating state of affairs.

If there are some socioeconomic and sociopolitical aspects to Green Fish that at least subliminally play into that film's context and plotting, the intersection of the personal and what might be called "national" is much more overt in Peppermint Candy, and in fact some parts of Young-ho's story play like a veritable post-modern Korean version of Zelig or Forrest Gump, where one man's "history" tends to reflect what's going on around him in a larger, communal sense. Without offering too many referents, the film's reverse chronology offers a somewhat similar "backwards" character arc that was used, arguably a bit fitfully considering its somewhat troubled history, in the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, where, due to how the timeframe is presented, ultimate defeat and discouragement is "up first", followed by a series of interstitial events, and then an "ending" (which is a "beginning" in another sense) offering unbridled (or at least not substantially bridled) hope and optimism.

Peppermint Candy is anchored in more than one way by a commanding if unavoidably disturbing performance by Kyung-gu, who manages to convey the rather broad spectrum of emotions and reactions Yong-ho traverses, no matter which "way" the timeline is going.

Peppermint Candy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Peppermint Candy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Film Movement tends not to provide a wealth of technical information on its releases, and that's once again the case here, though all four films in this set are advertised as having been culled from new 4K scans. As I've mentioned in several reviews of Film Movement Blu-ray releases, their presentations can often have slightly weird color timing and/or gamma settings, but all four of the films in this set are commendably free of any issues in those regards, and this film offers another really gorgeously saturated and natural looking palette, though there are some passing moments where things can look just slightly skewed toward a yellowish brown tone, and a few other moments that have a somewhat unnatural green hue underlying the imagery. Otherwise, though, things are really robust looking, and despite some minor fluctuations in color temperature, detail levels remain strong throughout. Grain resolves without any issues.

Peppermint Candy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Peppermint Candy offers either LPCM 2.0 or Dolby TrueHD 5.1 options in the original Korean. The surround track definitely opens up things in any number of ways, notably in some of the spacious ambient environmental effects in some of the outdoor material in particular (as in the strange, unsettling opening vignette), but also with regard to some of the music, both underscore and diagetic, as in some club scenes. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Peppermint Candy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lee Chang Dong Intro (HD; 4:54) is subtitled in English.


• Making Of (HD; 47:53) is subtitled in English.


• Auditions (HD; 6:45) offer some "table read" moments. Subtitled in English.


• Outtakes (HD; 7:13) also offer some behind the scenes footage. Subtitled in English.


• Peppermint Candy Trailer (HD; 1:52

As with most Film Movement releases, the disc also offers an About Film Movement option on the Main Menu which leads to text about Film Movement.

Peppermint Candy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In his introduction to this film, Chang-dong states Peppermint Candy is a "film about time", which is true in and of itself, but which hardly begins to describe the virtual deconstruction of what most people would call a "traditional chronology" as this sad story unfolds. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.