26 Years | |
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Promotional poster for 26 Years
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Directed by | Cho Geun-hyun |
Produced by | Choi Yong-bae |
Written by | Lee Hae-young |
Based on |
26 Years by Kang Full |
Starring |
Jin Goo Han Hye-jin Bae Soo-bin Im Seulong |
Music by | Lee Jin-hee Kim Hong-jib |
Cinematography | Kim Tae-kyung |
Edited by | Hahm Sung-won Son Yeon-ji |
Distributed by | Invent Stone Corp. Chungeorahm Film |
Release date
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Running time
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135 minutes |
Country | South Korea |
Language | Korean |
Budget | ₩6.6 billion |
Box office | ₩21,174,488,145 |
Korean name | |
Hangul | 26년 |
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Revised Romanization | 26 Nyeon |
McCune–Reischauer | 26 Nyŏn |
26 Years (Hangul: 26년; RR: 26 Nyeon) is a 2012 South Korean film based on the popular 2006 manhwa serialized online by cartoonist Kang Full. It is the fictional story of five ordinary people (a sports shooter, a gangster, a policeman, a businessman, and head of a private security firm) who band together in order to assassinate the man responsible for the massacre of innocent civilians in Gwangju in May 1980.
The story deals with one of the most tragic and critical events in South Korean history. On May 18, 1980 in the city of Gwangju, state troops were ordered to open fire on civilians, killing and wounding thousands. Former president Chun Doo-hwan is believed to have given the order, and although he is not named explicitly in the film, the target of the assassination attempt is clearly meant to represent Chun, who was convicted in 1996 of crimes related to the Gwangju Massacre, but later pardoned by President Kim Dae-jung.
26 years later in 2006, five people who consider themselves as some of the biggest victims of the massacre, plot a top-secret project to exact revenge by assassinating the man responsible. Kwon Jung-hyuk is a newly recruited policeman who lost his family in the massacre; he is now responsible for the cars that have access to the target's house. Kwak Jin-bae is a young gangster from an organized crime group whose father was also killed. Olympic sharpshooter Shim Mi-jin, a CEO from a large company and the director of a private security firm are also involved. As a former president, "that man" lives under police protection in an affluent district of Seoul, but through a combination of ingenuity, skill, and well-placed money they are able to draw within shooting distance of their target.
Kang Full's webtoon illustrated the brutal suppression by the dictatorial administration of the time, putting emphasis on the overcoming of interpersonal and societal barriers.