1987: When the Day Comes

Under the military regime of President Chun Doo-hwan, a student activist named Park Jong-chul dies during interrogation. Park Cheo-won, a ruthless commissioner in charge of investigating suspected communists, has oversight of the interrogation, and opts to cover it up, quickly cremating the body before an autopsy can be carried out and reporting the death as a heart attack. Commissioner Park's men approach a drunken Prosecutor Choi to approve the hasty cremation, but he refuses and resists their efforts to strong-arm him. The autopsy takes place despite Commissioner Park's efforts, with Jong-chul's uncle present as it is made evident the student's death was the result of foul play. The uncle declares this outside the hospital building, and Prosecutor Choi, after being fired, leaves evidence from the autopsy to Yoon Sang-sam, a reporter hoping to investigate the story despite a country-wide regulation against reporting on the death. Yoon's findings reveal to the public that Park Jong-chul died by asphyxiation, rather than the official police report of a cardiac arrest.

With the public aware that the student was killed by his interrogators, Commissioner Park chooses two detectives to take the full blame for the crime. He promises one patsy, the loyal detective Jo Han-kyung, that he will serve a reduced sentence for involuntary manslaughter rather than murder, but is unable to fulfill this promise, leading to a number of intense altercations between Jo and his colleagues when they visit him at the prison. Prison guard Han Byung-yong, who overhears some of these exchanges, is revealed to be in contact with high-ranking political activists, and attempts to convince his warden to disclose the records from the visits, which provide incriminating evidence of a cover-up.

Guard Han's niece, Yeon-hee, is a college student who occasionally helps him deliver messages, but is otherwise disinterested in activism. Yeon-hee finds herself in the middle of a violent clash between protesters and police, and is saved from a violent policeman by a handsome student activist. The two reconnect on campus, and Yeon-hee attends the activist's club where footage of the Gwangju uprising is shown during a meeting, but she remains resistant to joining the cause. Meanwhile, the warden finally agrees to disclose the visitation records after witnessing Commissioner Park threatening Detective Jo and his family, and being violently beaten by Park's cronies when he protests. Han asks Yeon-hee to deliver the records to his contact, but she refuses. Han attempts to do so himself, but Commissioner Park's men locate his contact before he gets the chance, and one of Park's men recognizes Han. They later abduct Han, and torture him in the same interrogation room where Park Jong-chul was killed. Commissioner Park reveals details of his childhood in North Korea, in which he watched a radical communist murder his family, while torturing Han.

Remorseful over her uncle's arrest, Yeon-hee independently delivers the information to Han's contact. The information finds its way to the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice, who make a public statement that Park Jong-chul was killed during interrogation by the two detectives arrested along with three others, and Commissioner Park had direct oversight and attempted to cover up the killing. A flashback to Jong-chul's death is shown, in which Detective Jo taunts him by claiming that if he dies in that room, nobody will care. Commissioner Park discovers that President Chun has personally approved to have him arrested and blamed entirely for Jong-chul's death. Han is released, and returns to his family. Later, Yeon-hee sees a picture in a newspaper of the handsome activist she met, severely wounded at a recent protest - he is revealed to be Lee Han-yeol, a real-life student protester who was shot in the head and killed by a police tear gas canister. Yeon-hee finally joins the movement for democracy.

Principal photography began on April 20, 2017 and ended on August 27, 2017.[9][10][11]

Released on December 27, 2017, the film drawn more than 7.2 million viewers in South Korea.[13]

• 1987: When the Day Comes at HanCinema
• 1987: When the Day Comes at IMDb
• 1987: When the Day Comes at the Korean Movie Database