South Korea’s brief but traumatic 2024 martial law declaration by disgraced former President Yoon Suk-yeol is the subject of this thrilling documentary, combining wild on-the-ground reportage with important historical context on Korea’s authoritarian-scarred past.
Realistic, impactful, and at times even shocking. The fragility of democracy is one of the central themes, as much as the strength of the people willing to protect it.
The Seoul Guardians
Seol-ui-bam
December 3, 2024 will long live in infamy in South Korean history, as the night when former President Yoon Suk-yeol (now languishing in jail for insurrection) declared martial law, under the pretext of blocking anti-state activities by the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Yoon’s decree lasted six hours, plunging the nation into crisis, and was only lifted after fierce political opposition and widespread backlash.
This engrossing documentary covers that fateful night’s main event — lawmakers defying police, locked gates and specialist military units to enter the National Assembly so they could vote to lift martial law — but provides viewers with a handy crash-course in South Korean political history.
With gripping on-the-ground reportage covering the clashes involving police, politicians, citizens and military troops from all angles, The Seoul Guardians is an immersive thriller bristling with rage and condemnation at the lunacy of Yoon’s actions. The documentary is a valuable reminder of just how precious real-life citizen unity is and how it can change history in a matter of hours.
– Cho Jinseok