Summary: Spring, 1999. On a railroad bridge overlooking an idyllic riverbank, Yong-Ho (Sul Kyung-Ku) faces an oncoming train. Distraught and beyond reason, Yong-Ho shouts, "I'm going back!" right before the train takes his life...
Peppermint Candy takes viewers back before Yong-Ho's death, and back through 20 years of the doomed man's life. Director Lee Chang-Dong weaves an emotionally wrenching tale about the futility of dreams against the unstoppable march of time. Like Memento, Peppermint Candy unfolds in reverse, with each stop in time giving new insight into Yong-Ho, as he becomes the man who will one day submit to his own death on a railroad bridge - the very same bridge beneath which he would declare his love for Sun-Im (Moon So-Ri) 20 years earlier...
But Peppermint Candy is more than a portrait of one man's self-destructive regret. Lee Chang-Dong takes Yong-Ho and the audience through 20 years of turbulent Korean history, including a stop at the tragic Gwang-ju Massacre, where Yong-Ho performs an act that will forever change his life. Full of harrowing moments and bittersweet emotions, Peppermint Candy earns every bit of its reputation as a masterpiece of the Korean New Wave!