May 18, the movie





Lee Jun Ki (My Korean shuai ge)





Ahn Sung Ki (respected retired soldier)



Have just finished watching the Korean movie, May 18, the military violent crackdown of the ‘rebels’ in the town of Gwang-ju. The film is pretty good in the sense that it examines the consequences of the crackdown on different groups of people – the students, the teachers, the ex-miltants, the civilians, the family-man, and even the dilemma faced by some of the people in the military towards such untoward behaviour. The whole of 9 days of ‘rebellion’ and crackdown was condensed into 2 hours, making it somewhat too compacted, maybe even not accurate due to the time constraint. However, there was the portrayal of media censorship at work by the military, the covering up of deaths of the civilians, the glorifying of the military. And there is the foreign media which reported the truth of the situation, which gave people in the town hope to live again.

On a more personal level, my Korean shuai ge Lee Jun Ki died less than 1 hour into the 2 hour show. And I think that the respected retired officer is a man just perfect for the role. He just has the air of command, the calm during nerve-wrecking situations and the charisma to lead the civilians in the defence of the town, and not to mention, he looks a little Japanese.

Oh, and the movie is a tear-jerker. Or maybe I am just a cry-baby.

Nonetheless, it’s a darn good show! And it stars Lee Jun Ki! A must-watch! (:

-aeRieL-

aeRieL fell to the samurai's sword @ 10:47 PM