Terrell-4 For those who enjoy political conspiracies, especially when laced with matter-of-fact coolness, blood pooling on the floors and enough confusion to make things believable, The President's Last Bang (Geuddae Geusaramdeul) is a fine, odd movie. Nearly all of the film is the story, more-or-less factual, of the last hours of the repressively authoritarian and corrupt Korean President Park Chun-hee, and then the maneuvering that followed. President Park, who seized power in a military coup in 1961, decides to have another of his increasingly frequent private dining evenings with one or two young girls, attended usually by his brutal and sycophantic chief bodyguard, his toadying chief secretary and his watchful head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-Kyu. Fine food is prepared, liquor is poured generously, and the girls entertain and prepare themselves for private entertainment later with the president. We realize the KCIA Director Kim is slowly losing favor. The president makes suggestions to him with a smile or a frown. Kim's compatriots take their cue from the president and make slighting references to the work of the KCIA. Repression is the order of the day, and the KCIA, no pussycat organization as it is, is seen by President Park and his sycophants as not being repressive enough. At the same time Director Kim is losing patience with the president's preoccupation with pleasure. "Never make a big deal about what goes on below the belly button," one high-ranking official advises. The date is October 26, 1979. In the middle of this tipsy, unpleasant party, Director Kim excuses himself for a moment. He tells two trusted subordinates that tonight is the night. This is something they've thought about. Then he takes a revolver in his hand, returns to the party and puts a bullet into the chief bodyguard, then into the President. The lights go out and as Kim's men hear the gunfire, they shoot down most of the remaining bodyguards. Since his gun jammed, Kim takes another gun, returns to the party room, pulls up the president who is still alive and puts a second bullet into the man's head. Then he casually finishes off the groaning chief bodyguard. As his men restore order, Kim tries to gain the Army's support. It doesn't work. The last part of the movie tells us all about how disorderly the highest reaches of government were during the dark, early morning hours after the assassination. Then we learn about the fates of Director Kim and his men. All this is presented with such "I am a camera" directness that the mundane self-interest, the careful protocols of power, the casual corruption and pervasive cynicism of government at these high levels almost turns the movie into a black comedy. For those who believe their sausages are made under the most hygienic conditions and who trustingly never read the list of animal parts that make up the meat, this movie might seem just as foreign as the country it comes from. Unfortunately, no government has captured the market on incompetence, venality, self-interest and rear-end kissing. At first we begin to sympathize with Kim, and then we have to keep remembering the KCIA was just as full of thugs as every other group. Humiliation and beatings were, and may still be, the common currency to maintain discipline and authority. Kim gradually seems motivated more by resentment and irritation than any particular feelings about democracy. How on earth did some of these people achieve power...and then we realize the same question can be asked about all governments. The movie may be something of an oddity, but it's an engrossing one.

krbargen The President's Last Bang Written and Directed by Sang-soo I'm Overall, it was just a story about one of the men in the government who reported to the President, forgive me I don't know politics, felt that it the government had dictated the country too long needed to seek a democracy or something different than dictatorship. So he took it upon himself to be the hero and kill the president and eliminate the problem. But complications arose that would naturally and the man along with his crew were all put to death. I'm not sure if the main problem was the script or direction but the story didn't have any real dramatic emotional pullers. Usually in trying to make a point about something it's overdone, in a suspending disbelief type of way sometimes, to really make your point and pull the audience in, but it seemed that this movie was lacking in this area and was almost washed out in dynamics and plot twists. Overall, other than creating a more dynamic plot twist or dramatic events stirring the emotions of the audience, the direction and production of the film was average to professional level film with nothing especially significant. All the editing, cinematography, sound, and acting were all professional yet not extraordinary. I would give the film a 4-5 out of 10 since it lacked a good storyline, the single more important part.

DICK STEEL I've always enjoyed films which are based on historical/political events, even though they have a fictional element thrown in to spice things up. Films like Oliver Stone's controversial JFK, or Roger Donaldson's Thirteen Days (hmm.. both starred Kevin Costner), are always in my list as definite must watch. Not that they are accurate, but at least they provide some kind of ground work from which you can build your research upon (and therefore being able to verify its accuracy somewhat).The first shot of this movie suggested a bang of a different kind. For a short while anyway, with its topless scenes. Anyway it was used to suggest the philandering, womanizing ways of ex-South Korean President Park Chun-hee, where agents of South Korea's CIA equivalent (KCIA) get the unglamorous job of seeking out starlets for the President's company.The movie paints the dictator Park in an unfavorable light. with his corrupt ways and highlights the last day of his life, leading to his assassination by KCIA director Kim during a routine dinner. I liked the dinner scene, where the table of top government officials - President Park, his fat slob of an arrogant chief bodyguard Cha (who refuses to carry a weapon), scheming Chief Secretary Yang, all having opposing views with Kim. They drink and make merry, insulting foreign politicians like the Philippines' and the US' (heh, surely I'd like to listen in on what their opinions of other countries' political leaders are really like).You can read Kim's frustrations with the regime, and takes it upon himself to do something before the night is up. Roping in a few good man, like Chief Agent Ju, and Agent Colonel Min, they plot to take severe action that will change the course of their history, whether or not they succeed. And that's where the tension and pace starts to pick up, with men making split-second decisions to make choices and follow their loyalties, and where the movie unfolds as a stylish, violent, and extremely bloody actioner set to cool beats of music.There are a number of scenes which put a smile on my face, especially when you realize the similarities amongst various issues. Like when the top brass of the military comes driving into Army HQ in civvies and in a civilian car, the lowly guard at the guard house fail to recognize him and start to make things really difficult during identity verification (respecting the rank and not the person), and for all the "wayang" in camps, there is absolutely insufficient ammo (or none at all) to load weapons to stage a military arrest. And there are the clueless "chao keng" small fry agents who are caught up in the entire situation without knowing the big picture as well - isn't this quite typical? Red tape and bureaucracy, and the incompetence of most MPs in deciding the next course of action, also goes to show how ill prepared the cabinet is when faced with emergencies of such nature. The reliance on one man, and the over-confidence that no matter of this nature could happen, helped to provide Kim and his men with buying of some time to decide on their own next steps. The sad part being while they know who they must kill, they too are ill-prepared as they have not crystallized plans for the aftermath.The ending's pretty abrupt with narration giving you the lowdowns on what happened to the men involved in the assassination. However, the execution (pardon the pun) and delivery of the movie, makes this one heck of a suspenseful, tightly paced movie, with some comedy sprinkled in to lighten up the gloom. Recommended stuff.

Chris Knipp 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.