Maxance Vincent
No didactics. No external interlocutors. No talking heads. Just a camera filming a harrowing moment in time for an hour and eight minutes. While Kim Jong-woo, Kim Shin-wan, and Cho Chul-young’s The Seoul Guardians doesn’t fit into the mold of “genre cinema” at the Fantasia International Film Festival, one can’t overstate the importance of such an object. The fact that it’s being shown at the festival tells you how essential a document like this is, even if the images that its directors showcase in their documentary are, quite frankly, harrowing.
The movie showcases the fall of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s regime after he declared martial law on December 3, 2024, in an attempt to hide his government’s corruption and remove any opposition standing in his way. Such a decision did not sit well with the public, who immediately rushed towards the National Assembly to protect the lawmakers who were attempting to block the motion and remove President Yoon from office.
If this story doesn’t have obvious parallels to what is currently unfolding in the United States, the directors don’t really try to draw anything from that time and instead communicate this event to the 1980 Gwangju Massacre. This event saw student demonstrations against then-president Chun Doo-hwan’s coup d’état, which led to the deaths of around 600 and 2,300 civilians. Archival images of the event are paralleled with what was unfolding in South Korea in 2024, and the juxtapositions are striking. The use of archival footage is sparse, but it’s hard not to see a case of history repeating itself: citizens caught in the middle of corrupt powers that attempt to suppress their critics and take full control of the country by manipulating the population and removing anyone who stands in their way.
Running at 72 minutes with credits, some may think that The Seoul Guardians is a bit too short, especially when the trio of directors doesn’t really contextualize what’s unfolding beyond the images that are shown on screen. However, the images speak for themselves. They don’t need to say anything, even if a voiceover narration does bridge the gap between the past and the present. What’s most important is the depiction of the citizens standing up against the fascist powers that attempt to remove their livelihoods once again. The Gwangju Massacre is still fresh in their minds, and lawmakers are doing everything they can to block the motion and impeach President Yoon before it’s too late.
Of course, people who closely followed this story know what happened, but it still doesn’t make the way The Seoul Guardians is structured any less thrilling. The movie feels much like a pressure cooker, where citizens know what they need to do to preserve democracy, but their window is so short that they must unite in the hope of being strong enough to stop the police from blocking access to the National Assembly. If Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow was one of the most staggering demonstrations of journalistic courage you’d see all year, then The Seoul Guardians is a staggering demonstration of pure courage. The citizens have nothing to lose anymore, because they’ve already seen what happened when democracy goes away.
That part is the most terrifying aspect of the documentary, and while it could’ve been a little longer, it’s also powerful enough to leave a lasting impression in our minds long after the credits roll. Perhaps The Seoul Guardians doesn’t necessarily fit into Fantasia’s lineup of unwieldy genre offerings, but it’s also too important for you to ignore. When a festival not usually known for screening serious and raw documentaries like this one took its time to give it the spotlight, maybe it deserves your attention. It will be hard to wipe off some of the images I’ve seen in this movie from my memory, but the act of watching The Seoul Guardians is more than necessary, especially at a time when most of us are realizing that democracy can go away with the snap of a finger…
SCORE: ★★★1/2
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