
Park Cheol-min, one of the actors starring in the hit movie "May 18", which tells the story of the Gwangju massacre, has a long relationship with the city where the democracy movement rose up against violent oppression by the Korean military in 1980.
Park is a native of Gwangju, and was in his second year of middle school when he witnessed the uprising. His film debut was in a movie about the events of May 1980 and he has played a small role in another Gwangju film called "Kkotip", which means petal.
Park said he lived in a remote part of Gwangju and he would visit the downtown area on his bicycle.
"It was an interesting scene with tires being burned and people wailing", Park said. He said it was odd because what he witnessed on Gwangju's streets and the Gwangju he saw on TV news were very different.
Now, 27 years later, Park has played the role of In-bong, one of the many Gwangju taxi drivers who blocked the roads and honked their horns in support of the democracy movement. In...|
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