Written and directed by Im Sang Soo,
The President's Last Bang has amounted to perhaps the most controversial film in recent Korean memory. In addition to facing considerable opposition from conservatives within the country, the filmmakers were forced by the Seoul Central Court to remove around four minutes of footage from the film's running time! The main concern was over the movie's slippery mixture of fact and fiction in telling this highly contentious story of political intrigue and scandal.
Part thriller, part comedy, The President's Last Bang is based on the 1979 assassination of former president Park Chung Hee (played by Too Beautiful To Lie's Song Jae Ho) by Kim Jae Gyu (Save the Green Planet's Baek Yoon Shik), the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency at the time. Han Suk Kyu (The Scarlet Letter, Tell Me Something) rounds out the cast with a darkly comedic turn as a KCIA chief. So ultimately, does The President's Last Bang result in a de facto character assassination, an astute political commentary, or a highly entertaining piece of historical fiction? The truth, it seems, may fall somewhere in the mix...
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