Director – Kim Sung Soo – 2023 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 141m
*****
In 1980, one Major General attempts to stop another from successfully orchestrating a military coup in South Korea – historical drama is South Korea’s entry for 2025 Best International Feature
In the aftermath of the assassination of President Park in 1979, an event portrayed in The Man Standing Next (Woo Min-ho, 2020), Chief of Staff Jeong (Lee Sung-min) promotes Major General Lee (Jung Woo-sung) to head of the Capital Garrison Command “because you’re not motivated by greed” and charges him with the job of defending Seoul. His concern is another Major General, Director of Joint Investigation Chun (Hwang Jung-min), who has access to the country’s surveillance services and is a member of the secret society Hanahoo which is rife within the military. Chun is already behaving like a king, and Jeong is worried what he might be planning.
And well he should be, because Chun is figuratively and literally empire-building, planning a coup d’etat and working out who is loyal to him (and will carry out his commands) and who isn’t. As far as he is concerned, Jeong is the enemy, and although the latter has been cleared of any involvement in the assassination, his presence at the scene of the assassination is enough to justify arrest and further interrogation.… Read the rest
