Leofwine_draca Review of 26 Years

26 Years (2012)

Hard-hitting Korean thriller stems from a controversial episode in that country's recent history

[6/10 · 26 November 2017]

26 YEARS is another hard-hitting South Korean thriller, based around the infamous Gwangju massacre of 1980 which was Korea's own Tiananmen Square incident. The title refers to the main action taking place twenty-six years after the event, where an assembled motley group of survivors and relatives of those killed in 1980 decide to get revenge on the politician responsible. As with most Korean films I've seen, this one is expertly directed and photographed, with the inventive use of animation to play out key events of the past. It's a little overlong and a little heavy on the emoting side of things - a familiar aspect of Korean cinema - but the thriller aspects are wonderfully portrayed, with some highly suspenseful set-pieces building to an elaborate, exciting climax.