“12.12: The Day” depicts the story of Lee Tae-shin (Jung Woo-sung), a stubborn commander of the Capital Garrison Command, standing against security commander Chun Doo-kwang (Hwang Jung-min). It was based on the true story of a revolt by the new military forces in Seoul on Dec. 12, 1979. This movie was directed by Kim Sung-soo, who directed the films “Beat” and “City of the Rising Sun.”
“12.12: The Day” ranked first in the movie reservation rate ranking even before its release. It has maintained its No. 1 position in the box office with a cumulative audience of 1.89 million for five days after its release.
This figure exceeds the cumulative number of movie “Smugglers” (2024), which attracted a total of 5.14 million viewers this summer (172 million). It is also the highest score among this year’s releases since “The Outlaws 3.”
As it is based on a true story, there is a joke among Internet users that “history is a spoiler” of this movie. However, the audience is expressing their emotions for the ending of “12.12: The Day Challenge.”
The movie’s popularity was proved as a new challenge arises. It is is to watch “12.12: The Day” and measure heart rate and stress index with a smartwatch and post it as a proof shot on social networking services (SNS). An audience member even certified that his heart rate soared to 172BPM.
Netizens are leaving comments such as, “a more heartbreaking movie by knowing the conclusion,” “I can’t control my heart rate even if I know the ending,” “The situation is frustrating and angry throughout the movie,” and “My stress index after watching the movie is no joke.”
