When South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law this week it was the first time a South Korean government took such a drastic measure since it became a fully functioning democracy more than 35 years ago.

Last year, a political blockbuster gripped South Korea with a dramatization of a painful memory from its authoritarian past, when the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979 led to a military coup and plunged the country into the iron grip of martial law.

The political roller-coaster of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration then suspension of martial law was extreme even by the standards of South Korea.