THE SEOUL GUARDIANS Review: Fighting for Democracy in South Korea

Late at night on December 3, 2024, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared martial law, staging a coup that threatened the country's government.

The only way to reverse the declaration was for politicians to vote against it at the National Assembly. But police and military summoned by Yoon will not let anyone enter the building.

That's all the context you need for The Seoul Guardians, one of the most concise and frightening documentaries of the year. It's impossible to watch without thinking about other countries facing similar crises — in particular a United States whose White House was overrun by rioters.

Directed by Jong-Woo Kim, Shin-Wan Kim, and Chul-Young Cho, three broadcast journalists, the film uses a semi-verité approach to the incident. An occasional voice-over comments on the action, for example, by drawing comparisons to the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980.

For the most part, this is front-line reporting: on the ground as troops climb over the walls surrounding the Assembly; inside corridors as politicians and staffers barricade doorways with office furniture; following troops down streets as they disembark from buses and carriers.

Thanks to editing by Stacy Kim and Chul Young Cho, the doc has a propulsive pace, pulling viewers along as situations grow more and more dangerous. Early scenes lay out the geography of the National Assembly buildings and grounds. The focus later on is on chokepoints, as demonstrators and soldiers alike swarm the compound walls.

Director Jong Woo Kim told me that the film's remarkable sense of momentum came about by stripping away everything that explained events. The confrontations and strategy sessions that remain reinforce the sense that the demonstrators and politicians don't have much time to save the country.

While there are glimpses of news reports and some YouTube shots from onlookers, the filmmakers don't try to fill in details. Instead, the doc unfolds in the equivalent of present tense. We are there as people try to hold back soldiers, as politicians push past barricades, as troops don riot gear. It is the closest thing to participating in the incident itself.

The aftermath of the incident is still unfolding in South Korean courts, but on that night the people won. Yoon's coup was overturned. Democracy survived. What the film makes clear is how close the Koreans came to a military takeover. At any point the tide could have turned. Someone could have knocked a policeman over, a soldier could have fired a weapon, riot troops could have broken through an unguarded doorway.

Amazingly, the doc captures some of these turning points. We see an officer deciding on the street whether to send soldiers into a fight. A politician in dress shoes slips as he tries to scale a wall. Moments like these escalate the film's already high stakes.

It's shocking how easy it is to destroy freedoms taken for granted. And it's absolutely exhilarating to see the people of South Korea fight to retain theirs. As Sona Jo, one of the producers, put it, "People power is the only solution to world problems."

The Seoul Guardians has won awards at IFFR, Hot Docs, Far East Film Festival, and Seattle International Film Festival. Visit the film's official site for more information.