Reaction Paper

1987 When The Day Comes (2017)

Reflection Paper

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The political thriller chronicles the year 1987 in South Korea; this year is marked with growing affinity for pop and teen culture, global recognition due to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and the massive shift in the government and politics of South Korea. It was a critically important time period in the Korean history due to the fact that the June Democratic Uprising occurred. The uprising was a nationwide protest primarily led by university students. More than a million people participated in it for overthrowing the military dictatorship, leading to the establishment of the democracy being ruled in the country today.

The movie has managed to make an impact on the audience due to the fact that many of the veteran actors in the star-standard cast who themselves remained a part of the protest in 1987. For this reason, the movie successfully creates a moving recollection of their pasts. Primarily, most of the Korean historical cinematic and televisual media display stories from 600 years ago. This movie remains a part of the modern times. It primarily focuses on events of the last century. The film speaks to the deeply wrought political events of the history that play a critically important role in shaping the South Korean society today. Overall, this film successfully reflects the shifting point of view of the military dictatorship into the current democracy.

The first few scenes of the movie are very strong particularly the attempted heart attack cover up of the Korean student who was torturously killed by an officer doing unofficial interrogations. The role of the prosecutor is the most wonderfully played character of the movie. From the very beginning, he believed that the death was a result of torture, refused signing off cremation of the dead body, and thus, going head to head with the Commissioner. On the other hand, the Commissioner of Anti-Communism is the most terrifying character of the movie primarily due to the enormous thug power he wields over the Korean public. However, there is no denying in the fact that both of these characters have a thrilling and antagonizing chemistry which remains intense from the beginning till the end of the movie.

Although the movie takes a sad turn when it suddenly cuts to the situation of a local prison warden who, along with his family, was endangered due to his political dispositions and union background. He, therefore, urges his niece to cooperate and take care of more than what was going on. She, however, refuses to do so because she had a life of her own to take care of. The character of the niece successfully exhibits the rest of the population's dispositions on the ongoing protests in the country. Despite her refusal, her life becomes difficult when not only her uncle is caught but also her love interest turns out to be a student leading the main June demonstrations.

The script of the movie is ambitious, aimed at telling multiple stories at once. Overall, there are two and a half stories in this movie. One is of the niece and how her life is impacted by the protests, and other is that of the prosecutor versus the commissioner's cover-up. Unfortunately, both of these stories have been roughly stitched together. The producers could not unify them in creating one cohesive film. For this reason, it remains reflective of perhaps how the events really went down but fails to exhibit and easy-to-follow film. Additionally, the narrative of the movie is fleeting, which means that the movie makers did not develop enough empathy or spend enough time to engage with what are critically important but one too many characters. Therefore, the movie appears to be like a half climates epic coming out of the theatre despite having all the right elements of a political and journalistic thriller.