Youth of May

May 3, 2021

Medical student Hwang Hee-tae (Lee Do-hyun) arrives in Gwangju to visit family. He meets nurse Kim Myung-hee (Go Min-si). It is May 1980. The political temperature in the city is rising.

May 4, 2021

The May 18th Gwangju Uprising erupts. Citizens, students, and workers rise against the military government. Hee-tae and Myung-hee are separated by the violence.

May 10, 2021

Chonnam National University Hospital becomes a treatment centre for the wounded. Myung-hee works through the night. The historical building's real role in 1980 gives the scenes documentary weight.

May 11, 2021

The citizens of Gwangju form a resistance. Hee-tae — initially trying only to survive — finds himself drawn into it.

May 17, 2021

Hee-tae and Myung-hee's love story continues inside the uprising. The drama refuses to separate the personal from the political.

May 18, 2021

The military encircles Gwangju. The civilians inside make decisions about how to spend their remaining time.

May 24, 2021

The historical record — what happened in Gwangju in the final days of the uprising — is rendered with care and sorrow.

May 25, 2021

The finale. A rare Korean drama that directly confronted the May 18th Gwangju Uprising — a subject long treated with institutional caution — as the backdrop for a love story. The final episode aired on May 18th, the anniversary of the uprising's conclusion.