Directed by: Jang Joon-hwan (장준환)
Starring: Kim Yun-suk (김윤석), Ha Jung-woo (하정우), Yu Hye-jin (유해진), Kim Tae-ree (김태리), Park Hee-soon (박희순), Lee Hee-jun (이희준)
The Film: In January of 1987, a 22-year-old university student being questioned by police dies. Under the leadership of Director Park (Kim Yun-suk), the police call for the body to be cremated. However, Prosecutor Choi (Ha Jeong-woo), who was on duty the day of the student’s death, refuses and calls for an autopsy. The police continue to insist that the death was the result of a simple case of shock, but evidence collected at the scene as well as findings from the autopsy indicate torture.
Reporter Yoon (Lee Hee-jun), who is covering the case, reports that the student drowned from water torture. In response and with pressure from the vice president, Director Park arrests two detectives including Detective Jo (Park Hee-soon) to put a close to the incident. While in prison, prison guard Han Byeong-yong (Yu Hye-jin) learns the truth about the incident from Detective Jo while he is imprisoned. To get the truth to an outsider, Han writes a letter to his niece Yeon-hee (Kim Tae-ree) asking for a dangerous favor…
One person dies, and everything begins to change. This was the hottest story of 1987.
1987 is based on true events that led to one of the largest nationwide civil uprisings in South Korea. Taking place during the same tumultuous decade as last year’s mega-hit A Taxi Driver (2017), 1987 deals with similar themes of civil unrest and the important role both students and journalists played in the struggle for democratization under the authoritarian regime of the time. However, 1987 is much darker in tone and more specific in its approach by focusing on the historical event that could be considered the straw that broke the camels back and sparked the nationwide mass protest movement now known as the June Struggle.
The film is styled like a dramatized documentary that spans the course of nearly seven months, beginning the time a student dies in the hands of police in late January and goes through early July during the height of the mass protest movement. Each of the main players (and there are many!) who take part in this complex story are introduced upon first appearance with a freeze-frame and a typewriter graphic that gives their name and job/position. Since the chain of events that ultimately lead to the dramatic public reveal of the true events surrounding the students death involve many people from different segments of society, there is little time for backstory or character history. With practically zero down-time in 1987, the ball gets rolling extremely fast and builds like a snowball that ultimately ends in an avalanche.
Due to the amount of ground covered and characters involved in 1987, it can be difficult to keep track of who is who at times. This is especially true when it comes to the various enforcers working on behalf of the corrupt police force who are on orders from high ranking government officials, as well as the army of reporters fighting for every lead in the case. There are also subplots that paint certain characters with ties to North Korea either through their accents and way of speaking or through a kind of McCarthyism that can be somewhat difficult to follow without prior knowledge of the time period.
With so many characters involved and each with their own important role at various moments throughout the six or so months that it takes to expose the botched police cover-up of the student’s death, one might wonder where and when certain actors will appear. 1987 is unique in that its characters come and go only as their contributions in the timeline play out. Actor Ha Jung-woo for example, who plays one of the prosecutors, is very important at the beginning of the film in refusing to cremate the body and ordering the autopsy, but pretty much disappears during the second half of the film when the story focuses on the students and prison guards who help get the story to the activist leaders. Every character is interesting and multidimensional down to the smallest role making every moment of their screen time count.
About halfway through the film when the plot shifts towards the new school days of Yeon-hee’s (Kim Tae-ree) freshman year at univeristy and her uncle’s (Yu Hae-jin) role as a prison guard, 1987 has moments lighter in tone and much needed after its dark and gripping first act. With being just her second major film and following her breakout performance in Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016), Kim Tae-ree reinforces herself as an A-List actress who I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of from now on. The film’s lighter tones with the back-and-forth banter between her and her uncle and the gawking at cute boys with her best friend at school is, however, short lived. Yeon-hee is quickly introduced to the various dangers her fellow students are facing in their growing resistance movements. To make matters worse, the boy she’s fallen for is the leader of one of these organizations.
1987 is an incredibly powerful film that incorporates real archived documentary footage to enhance the historical realism and gives it that extra emotional punch that Korean films are particularly good at. While I would have loved to see 1987 as a 10 part mini series to give each of the amazing actors more screen time and character building opportunities, perhaps I am being a bit greedy as the film already does its job amazingly well at 129 minutes thanks to smart editing choices as well as its superb directing by Jang Joon-hwan (Hwayi: A Monster Boy (2013) & Save the Green Planet! (2003)). Along with last year’s A Taxi Driver, 1987 is a fascinating film that encapsulates an important yet dark time in Korea’s history and shouldn’t be missed.
Recommendation: Highest.
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