Amidst the ongoing political and social turmoil following President Yoon Seok-yeol‘s declaration and lifting of martial law, a craze is rising for rewatching the film ‘Seoul Spring’, which deals with the December 12 incident. At a time when other works dealing with modern and contemporary history are being reexamined, filmmakers have come forward to demand President Yoon’s resignation.

○‘Seoul Spring’, ‘A Taxi Driver’, etc. make a comeback

‘Seoul Spring’ rose to the top of Netflix‘s most-watched movies rankings on the 5th, two days after the martial law declaration, and has maintained that ranking as of the 8th. On the integrated theater and OTT (online video service) content ranking chart Kinolights, it also demonstrated its ability to take the highest ranking among movies, beating out all new releases currently showing in theaters, such as ‘Moana 2’ ‘Firefighter’.

‘A Taxi Driver’, a 2017 movie starring Song Kang-ho that deals with the Gwangju Democratization Movement, also re-entered the top 5 movie rankings on Tving, Wave, Coupang Play, and Watcha. German actor Thomas Kretschmann, who played the role of Peter, who was based on the real-life foreign correspondent Jurgen Hinzpeter, posted a photo from the filming of ‘A Taxi Driver’ on his personal SNS, along with the message, “I thought it was a film about Korea’s past”, expressing his regret for the current state of affairs in Korea.

As public interest in films that deal with turbulent modern and contemporary history has grown, distributor NEW released the 2013 film ‘The Attorney’ for free on its official YouTube channel, ‘ItsNEW’, with the title ‘Emergency Programming’. ‘The Attorney’ states, “The sovereignty of the Republic of Korea resides in the people, and all state authority emanates from the people. The line, “A country is its people” is famous.

○Filmmakers speak out in unison, “President Yoon, step down”

In this situation, major filmmakers have issued an emergency statement calling for President Yoon’s resignation. This statement was signed by 81 film organizations including the Korean Film Producers Association and the Korean Film Directors Guild, as well as 3,007 current and former filmmakers, film students, and audience members.

In the statement, they stated that regarding President Yoon’s declaration of martial law, “It is something that is completely incomprehensible with common sense, something that can only be considered a delusion no matter how much cinematic imagination is used, and it is something that has happened in reality,” and added, “To the filmmakers of the Republic of Korea, Yoon Seok-yeol is no longer the president. They expressed their position, saying, “Quickly suspend President Yoon Seok-yeol from his duties and impeach and arrest him.”

Meanwhile, director Kim Sung-soo, who directed ‘Spring of Seoul’, said through Max Movie, “I am furious at the absurd declaration of martial law. The Republic of Korea has protected democracy with bloodshed,” and lamented, “The current state of the Republic of Korea, which has become a mess because of one person.”


Reporter Lee Seung-mi smlee@donga.com