The Seoul Guardians
(South Korea, 71 min.)
Dir. Chul Young Cho, Shin Wan Kim, Jong Woo Kim
Prod. Sona Jo, Shin Wan Kim
Programme: World Showcase
For many South Koreans, the wounds of former president/military dictator Chun Doo-hwan’s merciless violence are a reminder of the country’s political polarisation. One such example is the Gwangju uprising of 1980, where over 200,000 civilians, including liberal students and dissidents, congregated to fight against the coup-d’état perpetrated by their conservative dictatorship and denounce their leaders’ attempts at political suppression. Attempting to sway the public, the state framed the protesters as North Korean communist sympathisers.
Upon the declaration of martial law, uprising left thousands of innocent civilians wounded and an estimated hundreds of victims murdered, although the figures remain unknown due to suppressed communication and censorship in service of the political narrative. Gwangju endures as a reminder of the power of collective democratic solidarity for those who refuse to repeat the atrocities of the past.
44 years after the Gwangju massacre, history was about to repeat itself. On December 3, 2024 conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in a national broadcast. In the blink of an eye, lawmakers, journalists, and civilians dashed to the national assembly to prevent another Gwangju massacre. Empowered by their cameras in their sweaty palms, the unified dissidents worked together to prevent future calamity.
In their taunt and tense documentary The Seoul Guardians, journalists turned filmmakers Jong Woo Kim, Shin Wan Kim, and Chul Young Cho encapsulate the escalating anxiety, fear, and relentless political pressure that occurred on that fateful night. Equipped with their cameras, the filmmakers and their colleagues swiftly entered the national assembly before the military and police could block access. They continuously filmed throughout the night, as they were unsure of the outcome. Condensing six-hours of unpredictable tension into a tight 70-minute runtime, the film presents a comprehensive overview of the 2024 martial law crisis from different perspectives.
Piecing together different vantage points from journalists who were documenting the events in different areas of the national assembly, The Seoul Guardians is composed from an eclectic mixture of digital footage. As an extension of the human gaze, the cameras document each passing minute. Ranging from polished high-quality images to blurry iPhone footage, the varied resolutions symbolically resemble the interconnected struggle of the people themselves. The synchronicity of the recordings represents a unified resistance against the coup d’état. Through the claustrophobic framing and kinetic montages, The Seoul Guardians simultaneously encapsulates the life or death severity of the legislative fallout.
With their film, directors Kim, Shin, and Chul aren’t looking for a clean aesthetic. Instead, the filmmakers embraces the rawness of their footage. The Seoul Guardians’ soundtrack complements the kaleidoscopic curation of the material to propel the film’s break-neck saga. The suspenseful droning score furthers the dramatic stakes with stressful crescendos that arise during pivotal turning points.
Returning to the foundation of the Gwangju massacre, The Seoul Guardians connects the events of the 1980 coup d’état with the events of the 2024 martial law crisis. Through kinetic cutting, archival footage is spliced within the narrative. Literally merging the past with the present, the implementation of the archive works most effectively when the film utilises a recurring visual motif to bridge the footage. In one of the film’s most harrowing sequences, the arrival of helicopters from the South Korean military is seamlessly intercut with archival footage of airborne militia from Doo-hwan’s dictatorship. While not all of the archival sequences bridge the past and present together as effective through match-cutting, The Seoul Guardians makes its political connection clear through its anxiety-inducing form.
Despite its remarkable vision, The Seoul Guardians still handholds its viewer through some on-the-nose narration. While the journalistic commentary adds a personal dimension to the timeline of events, the film’s strong editing overpowers the resonance of the spoken word. The narration slows down the escalating tension, detouring its compelling political saga by spelling out the film’s thesis to its audience. As a result, the documentary loses its narrative momentum amidst the political pandemonium.
As a reminder of the importance of communal unity, The Seoul Guardians is an impressive debut feature that reflects upon South Korea’s turbulent politics and history. Achieving a remarkable amount of tension and dread through its curation of footage, The Seoul Guardians is an exciting reinvention of a political thriller. Unsubtle yet commendable in its thematic linking of the past with the present, The Seoul Guardians is a remarkable piece of non-fiction cinema that transports its viewers into the relentless chaos at the scene of the 2024 martial law crisis.
The Seoul Guardians screened at Hot Docs.
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