Interview: 12.12: The Day Director Kim Sung Soo

Earlier this week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and attempted a coup, the first attempt since the successful 1980 coup that is at the center of director Kim Sung Soo’s new film 12.12: The Day. The state’s democratic powers proved powerful enough to ward off the power grab with ease and swiftness this time though. The parliament voted 190-0 to lift the declaration of martial law, a confident affirmation of democracy in South Korea. But the image that stuck with me the most was one of news reporter turned politician Ahn Gwi-ryeong grabbing the assault rifle of a soldier and forcibly repelling him backward as she scolds him for putting civilians at risk. It’s a brave and powerful image, the kind that defines these sorts of events decades later. It also felt straight from the climax of Kim’s film; Lee Tae-shin (Jung Woo-sung) and Ahn share a heroism normally only found in movies. Ahn, and everyone else involved in repelling this real-life authoritarian threat from President Yoon, proved an image at the heart of Kim’s film. That image, as I said in my review for In Review Online, is of “an image of the soul of Seoul as a resilient, brave, and honorable city with a population that fights for each other.”

The following is an interview with director Kim Sung Soo.

Boston Hassle: Where were you on 12/12 – The Day? Do you have a memory of the day? What was it like?

Kim Sung Soo: On December 12, 1979, I was a senior in high school. That evening, I saw a military armored vehicle passing through my neighborhood. My curiosity got the better of me, so I followed it. I saw it stop at the main gate of the official residence compound behind the elementary school I had attended. That moment was exactly when, as depicted in the film, the Army Chief of Staff was being forced away by the rebels.

I heard loud gunfire, and armed soldiers blocked me and the other residents from approaching.

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