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A Petal

Play trailer A Petal 1996 1h 40m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Audience Reviews

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Dennis M This is a searing film, and not easy to watch. But for starters, it features the most amazing performance by a fifteen-year-old girl of any movie you will ever see--anywhere--ever. Lee Jung-hyun, who has since gone on to drama and music stardom in Korea, breaks your heart as a nameless girl, traumatized by Dictator Chun Doo-whan's massacre of innocent civilians and students in Kwangju, Korea. The film is disjointed, and part of the difficulty following it is due to the fact that her own psyche has been split into pieces by what has befallen her--and continues to befall her. Moon Seong-geun is surprisingly affecting as the construction worker who, at first, brutalizes and rapes her, then, by degrees, comes to empathize with the depths of her suffering. A quartet of her brother's college classmates also search for her. Director Jang Sun-woo also works in an old rock and roll hit by Kim Choo-ja, who was queen of Korea's pop scene in the 1970's, and too little appreciated in the West. The viewer can plumb almost limitless layers of symbolic meaning. Both sensational--and also seen as scandalous--when released in Korea in 1996, this film deserves much wider appreciation than its current obscurity. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/08/25 Full Review Read all reviews
A Petal

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Movie Info

Director
Jang Sun-woo
Producer
Ahn Byeongju
Screenwriter
Jang Sun-woo, Jang Mun-il
Production Co
Miracin Korea
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Korean
Runtime
1h 40m