Now 26 years later the President who ordered this atrocity has been legally censured for it but lives in luxurious retirement, still feted by elements of business and high society.
Five disparate people who were victims of Gwangju are brought together to get justice and if not that, revenge.
The Netflix blurb for this crowdfunded revenge heist thriller doesn't convey quite what an intense thing it is.
It's five people willing to do anything to enact iconoclastic justice against a symbol of Korea's dark recent past. It must have been quite a thing domestically.
There are good performances all round, although the Seoul police department are played somewhat for comedy value in an otherwise very serious movie.
Recommended 8/10.