The President's Last Bang

I saw this recently at the Toronto International Film Festival to a packed house with the director present. I liked it.

It comes across as a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the the 1979 president's assassination. It was believable, suspenseful, and occasionally funny, if you can imagine that! This was the work of someone who really cared to bring a defining historical moment into the modern psyche, to raise some important questions about Korean society.

In my mind, this is what movies should be about -- defining moments of time. And crafting a story that allows the viewer to be drawn into the circumstances, to be shown a view of how things may have happened without being dogmatic or overly judgmental. Kudos to the director to crafting an even-keeled drama that, I suspect is accessible to a large international audience.

US release: fall 2005. Shown at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center, October 2005

After Park Chunghee became President of South Korea by military coup in 1961 he made major contributions to the country's industrialization and economic development – but became a dictator by altering the constitution and declaring martial law. He must have had many enemies, and there had already been other assassination attempts by 1979, the moment depicted in the film, when Kim Jaegyu, his KCIA chief, shot him and several of those closest to him at a private bacchanal held at a palatial KCIA safe house. The events are depicted from Kim's point of view. "The President's Last Bang," which is brutal in its unreflective, intense, present energy, is half political film and half violent actioner. It amply shows how corrupt and cynical Park was; how much Koreans at this point enjoyed kicking, punching, and slapping their subordinates in front of others; their abusive and demeaning treatment of women; and their penchants for smoking and chewing gum. After the killings – which went on to include military guards and even cooks – there was a brief period of chaos, also well covered in the film. Kim expected to get away with it, but he and his closest accomplices are soon apprehended. Director I'm includes humor amid the horror, showing the clumsiness and confusion and sheer incompetence of some of the participants. It's interesting to observe how impulsive and improvised the shootings were, and how often the ruling class shifts in their conversation to the Japanese language to be more elegant or avoid being understood by underlings. The film is effective technically and illustrates South Korean cinema's growing sophistication, but it may leave non-Korean viewers cold; the film-making style feels as hard and brutal as the events.

I'm-Sang Soo's "President's Last Bang" is an awesome piece of cinema, a throwback to the paranoid political thrillers of the 70s like "The Conversation," "The Parallax View" and "All the President's Men."

The film revolves around the true story about an assassination attempt made on President Park Chun-hee and its aftermath.

Saw this at Telluride and was blown away by the pitch black comedy, Kim Woo-hyeong's incredible super 35mm cinematography, and the fluid tracking shots.

The director described this film as in the vein of "Goodfellas" and the "Godfather" trilogy.

For those who are fiending for more quality Korean cinema after "Oldboy," this is definitely worth seeking out.

My feeling on the overall direction of the Presidents Last Bang was that it was all done; it seemed to flow right along pretty well. Although it was not nearly as good of a film as Oldboy was. This film used many different ways of keeping you interested in the film. I also thought that it was interesting all the different locations they used, and the actors and wardrobe. Wow you can see how much work it took to make this film, almost every scene was so illustrated, it was amazing. One thing I noticed a lot of was the movie jumped a lot from one location to another, causing some confusion for myself at times. However I truly enjoyed this film mainly because of the actors. There were so many different actors, with different personalities, and a little horseplay that went along with the film. The lighting of this film, was well done as well, I wasn't so much impressed by that but just by the art of each scene that the director showed. If I had to rate this film, I would give it a 7. Because of all the work that went into making the film, the storyline was good, and the actors were great. The camera work was also neat. He used so many different angles and movements. It gave you a lot better quality. This also played into the production quality which was also great. This was a well done film. Props to the Director and his crew.

Dramatic event but narrated like ordinary life with a spoonful of comedy. I like 'The President's Last Bang' because it is comical. I know the history already, and the assassination of Park has been told in so many ways, and everytime it results to be super political while the work itself may not be. However, I do not like the narration part at the end being funny, light, and sarcastic as well. It goes overboard and decreases the whole quality of a movie. That narration sounds even condescending and patronizing toward the audience.

Another thing that makes me uncomfortable is how women are treated in that time period and in the movie as well. Unnecessary nude scenes and lines that degrade and shame women sexually come from women. I'm not sure if the director intended this or not, but it implies that men are blameless for how women are mistreated at that time because women put blame on each other.