Hwang Jung-min (entrance) as Chun Doo-gwang in a scene nonetheless from ‘12.12: The Day.’ Photo courtesy of HanCinema.
12.12: The Day (2023) is South Korea’s submission at the 97th Academy Awards. Directed by Kim Sung-su, the interval piece has heavyweight Korean actors—Hwang Jung-min, Jung Woo-sung, Lee Sung-min, Park Hae-joon, and Kim Sung-kyun—in starring roles.
The “Coup d’état of December Twelfth” or the 12·12 Military Insurrection, an armed rebellion on December 12, 1979, in South Korea, gives the context for the historic drama movie. In South Korean historical past, this navy coup, together with the “Coup d’état of May Seventeenth,” ushered in the start line of the collapse of the Fourth Republic of Korea (1972–81).
According to an earlier article by The Korea Times, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) zeroed in on 12.12: The Day as an Oscar entry for its gripping narrative, phenomenal performances, excellent workmanship, and perceptive depiction of precise occasions.
President Park Chung Hee’s assassination and the subsequent occasions are central to 12.12: The Day—we encounter an outbreak of staggering political and social upheaval in South Korea when, in response to the homicide, a martial regulation regime comes into impact. Park, the third President of South Korea—in a tragic twist of occasions, was killed on October 26, 1979—whereas he was in the center of a dinner at the secure home of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) near the Blue House presidential compound in Seoul. The tragedy had far-reaching results on the nation and its residents.
A rise up led by safety commander Major General Chun Doo-gwang (Hwang Jung-min) and his loyal males turns up in the movie, reflecting the repercussions of the incident. Doo-gwang and the dogged Lee Tae-shin (Jung Woo-sung), who’s answerable for the Capital Garrison Command, conflict on account of Tae-shin’s staunch opposition to navy intervention in politics.
The scenario is such that the navy officers hesitate to make judgments and the minister of protection is to not be discovered as the two males’s disagreement escalates, and amid this mayhem, the time takes an unanticipated flip.
Filmmaker Kim Sung-su made 12.12: The Day marrying fiction with an actual prevalence that is still with him as a memorable expertise. Korean media has it that he was in his teenagers when Kim, who was dwelling in the neighborhood the place the navy coup occurred on December 12, 1979, heard gunfire coming from the Army Chief of Staff’s place. He recalled the expertise at the movie’s press convention, saying that whereas he was terrified when he heard firing that day, he additionally grew to become intrigued to search out out what precisely was occurring. Years later, he translated that vivid reminiscence into celluloid.
Whether the movie will make it to the shortlist for the Best International Feature Film class at the upcoming Oscars is but to be introduced.
