This year′s festival headlines the celebration of Asian cinema, with Korean entry [Peppermint Candy] as its curtain raiser. Lee Chang-dong, whose acclaimed [Green Fish] exposed essence of Korean society, display the process of recovering lost time of our contemporary history in a new form. Just as Marcel Proust walked into the past while following the scent of Madeleine′s cookies, [Peppermint Candy] follows minty aroma from Spring of 1999 and travelling backwards in time for twenty years. At the terminus of reversed time and space lie happy days of Young-ho and Soonim exchanging peppermint candies with one another. Simply put, this is a film about personal history of Young-ho. Through his character, however, we get to experience twenty years of presumed Korean history. Changes in Young-ho signify the turmoil in our society. First as a brutal soldier then as a cop torturing political dissidents, and finally as failed businessman... these are the reflections of us, our self-portrait. Furthermore, they are the screams of purgee from Eden and, through those cries, we join the festival of suffering. Finding the lasting scent of one human being within the images of broken time: Realism on such existence conceive pellucid ′peppermint candy.′