황무지 5월의 고해

Chae-geun is a driver for hire with manic depression. He often talks to his son who is studying in the States and tells him he would keep his promise. He does a favor by acting as a temporary fiancé of a single woman named Jin-hee, who works as a waitress at a restaurant he frequents. Her father, who was a victim of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980, shows him a gun he stashed away 39 years ago and asks Chae-geun to help him exact revenge on those who were responsible for the May 18 incident.

May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement. Though the country commemorates the event as the official historical records, it does not include any 'real' accounts of the people who experienced it firsthand. The students who were part of the movement; the female vendors who made rice balls for the students; the female high school students cooked at the government building; now, past their middle age, they live as ordinary citizens in Gwangju city. How is the event remembered by these people?

A young girl is caught up in the 1980 Gwangju massacre, where Korean soldiers killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters who opposed the country's takeover by the military the year before. Flashbacks show the girl seeing her mother shot to death in the massacre. The film spurred the Korean public to demand the truth behind the incident, and their government eventually opened previously classified files on the massacre.

There is HWAPYONG Restaurant with full of hopes of the family of three generations. Grandfather, the first-generation owner, and the first son, the second-generation owner, who lives as a fugitive after being branded as a communist and his wife and Cheol-soo’s mom who has to work hard by juggling work and family without complaint. The second son, Cheol-soo’s uncle, who sometimes acts like a child with an excuse of being the second son but loves Cheol-soo more than anyone and seriously cares about the restaurant. To the third generation, young Cheol-soo, family is the most precious. By the time when ‘Seoul Spring’ longing for democratization came to nothing due to ‘Retreat from Seoul Station’ in 1980, there were a series of peaceful protests in Gwangju, Jeolla Province. In warm May, a large dark cloud is looming over HWAPYONG Restaurant, the home and everything of this ordinary family of Cheol-soo, in the middle of Gwangju.

20 years after discharge from the army and now an excavator driver, a former paratrooper who had been mobilized to suppress the May 18th Democratic Uprising in Korea in 1980, happens to find a skull in the ground one day. Driving his excavator, he pays visits to his former superiors one by one and realizes they were all both assailants and victims of the times.

In the spring of 1999, a group of old friends gather to celebrate their 20 year reunion. Among the group is Yeong-ho, a cold, unhappy man, whose demeanor puts a damper on the festivities. The seriousness of Yeong-ho's depression becomes apparent when he climbs a railroad bridge and looks like he might jump. At this crucial moment, memories of seven crucial episodes from Yeong-ho's past flood his mind.

The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.

Activist Hyun-woo is released from prison after a 17-year stint. Journeying back to the village where he spent some time as a fugitive he recalls the time spent with Yoon-hee, a woman who gave him shelter and companionship.

Cheol-gi who dreams of a society that embraces justice begins classes at a night school. There he learns about political and social contradictions and the realities the people face. While doing research on factory conditions with his classmates Tae-il, Min-sook and laborers Hyun-sil and Bong-joon, Cheol-gi learns about the Revitalizing Reforms system and the improper practices in emergency measures. After the military revolution, during the election for a general student body in a move towards democracy, Cheol-gi unwittingly becomes a man on the run when emergency martial law is implemented in response by the government. Cheol-gi blames himself when hears about the deaths of Tae-il and Min-sook during the Gwang-ju Uprising from Hyun-sil and Bong-joon. Just when he and Hyun-sil try to start a new life together, Cheol-gi is arrested and put in jail. Inside the prison, he starts another move towards prison democracy.