For a lot of South Koreans, this week’s dramatic occasions had been their first real-life brush with the nation’s historical past of army dictatorship. That’s why tens of millions turned to a year-old film on Netflix and a literary traditional to attempt to make sense of the turmoil.
The movie “12.12: The Day,” which debuted in 2023 to 13 million moviegoers, has been the No. 1 Korean movie on the streaming platform since Dec. 3, when President Yoon Suk Yeol shocked the nation by imposing martial regulation. The 141-minute blockbuster, which has been on Netflix since Might, depicts the occasions surrounding a Dec. 12 coup in 1979.
The Asian nation continues to be coping with the aftermath of Yoon’s Tuesday night resolution, which reignited recollections of the motion led by Gen. Chun Doo-hwan that created a dictatorship and culminated within the bloody Gwangju Rebellion of 1980.
