[Namsan's Ministers] is definitely the first must-see Korean movie of the year.
As soon as it was revealed, it immediately topped the Douban book video hot search list, pressing [want to see you] and [parasite], which shows its popularity.
This "annual expectation" of hardware and software equipment can be described as top-notch:
Starring three male gods, Lee Byung-hyun ([insider]) + Lee Seung-min ([Agent]) + Guo Duyuan ([Cry]), a Korean Blue Dragon Award Film Emperor plus two Film Emperor candidates (Green Dragon Film Emperor Lee Byung-hyun, the other two have been nominated), the same stage;
Douban scored 8.3, south Korea Naver scored 8.48
The theme of the coup d'état on the outside scale, the familiar taste of kimchi, the president was shot in the head on the screen, the blood in the chest was left straight out, and there was no one except Korean movies;
The lines are even more bloody and merciless;
As well as the neat genre films polished by the Korean film industry, it is not as convincing as the long shot at the end of the film.
[Namsan's ministers] recreated the story of the 40 days before the incident, based on the "Park Chung-hee assassination incident" of South Korean President in 1979.
The title of the film comes from the Central Intelligence Agency, South Korea's first intelligence agency, established during Park Chung-hee's reign. The CIA is located in Namsan, and the heads of the Central Intelligence Department, who are the second-in-command of the Republic of Korea, are known as the "ministers of Namsan".
Lee Byung-hyun as Kim Joo-hyun, director of the Central Intelligence Department
So, in simple terms, this is the story of a second-in-command who attempts to usurp power and usurp the throne, but eventually turns against the trap.
I believe that many people will think of many Korean movies that they have seen in the past after watching [the ministers of Namsan]. Because it is too similar, it is still the recipe of Korean movies in the impression.
So what is the recipe for this déjà vu of Korean movies?
Take one or two histories, one or two realities, one or two pains, half two self-deprecation and half two self-examination, throw them into the political mortar and grind them carefully, and finally sprinkle public opinion, that is, a good medicine - Korean political movies.
What is a "political film"?
Political films, in a broad sense, are counted as films that are related to politics, that is, "political films".
French director Godard once gave this definition: "Political films are not made political films, but 'politically' films." ”
French director Godard
Express political events directly or indirectly in a fictitious or non-fictional manner, reflecting or refracting the fluctuations of individual fate and social reality in these events.
Nowadays, when we talk about political films, we mostly think that they are critical and ironic, reflecting the film creators' concern and reflection on reality. Acupuncture is like a social scalpel.
But when the concept was first born, it wasn't a scalpel, it was a brochure.
In the 1920s and 1930s, after the end of World War I, before the outbreak of World War II.
The political role of cinema began to be valued, especially in the Soviet Union and Germany. Through the nationalization of the film industry, film creation was fully taken over.
Therefore, the first batch of political films were born, and the artistic value gave way to political benefits and became a propaganda album that could be displayed to the outside world.
Soviet film of 1919 [Proletarians of the world, unite!] ] shows the state of struggle of Soviet workers; in 1925, Eisenstein's [battleship Potemkin] was the first Soviet political film to have an important international impact in the context of the "Soviet Revolution of 1905"; in 1935, [Chabayev] of the Leningrad Film Studio portrayed the heroes of the Soviet Civil War.
Eisenstein's Montage Masterpiece [Battleship Potemkin]
German political films of the same period, without exception, advocated Nazi rule, represented by the female director Lenny Riefenstahl.
Until the end of the 1960s and 1970s, the worlds of East and West were not at peace. "Assassination of Kennedy", "Prague Spring", "May Storm", "Vietnam War", "Italian Strike", "Unit 124 Assassination of Park Chung-hee"...
The turbulent international situation just constitutes the historical background of the grand narrative of the political films of various countries.
Political films that are truly in line with the modern meaning of the chaotic world come from that period - the distinct realist tendencies, the deep humanistic care, and the gradual expansion of influence.
The first political film to expose political scandals came from the 1969 French director Costa Gavras's Focus News, aka Z. "Z" stands for the Greek word "Zei", meaning "life".
[Focus News] won the 1969 Oscars "Best Foreign Language Film" and "Best Editing" two awards, and was nominated for "Best Picture" and "Best Director" at the same time.
Immediately after that, political films from all over the world also came out one after another, forming a "political film fever".
Italian films [Confessions of a Police Chief to the Prosecutor of the Republic] and [The Matter of Matteoti], [National Interest] of France, [Presidential Team] and [Assassination of Kennedy] of the United States (1973 version, not the 1991 Version of Oliver Stone), Britain's [The Day of the Jackal]...
[The Day of the Jackal] aka [Assassination of Charles de Gaulle]
So another key question arises: What was South Korea doing at the time?
Korean political films: Start late, run fast, three axes
At that time, Korea was chaotic, chaotic into a pot of porridge. Who cares about making a movie or watching a movie?
Just like the background of the movie "The Ministers of Namsan": On May 16, 1961, Park Chung-hee launched a military coup d'état to overthrow the democratically elected regime.
In the second year of Park Chung-hee's reign, the South Korean government enacted the first Basic Film Law, followed by a "prior licensing" approach to film censorship.
This is another layer of shackles under Park Chung-hee's repression, which sees the film as a tool for publicizing state policy, regulated by a military government. But films involving sensitive subjects can never pass censorship.
Korean cinema can hardly see the future, it is dark.
The real dawn came in 1997, when South Korea enacted the Film Promotion Law, which involved more than a dozen items such as film production, film censorship, and revitalization funds, and then presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung publicly promised to abolish film censorship under the principle of "support, never interference".
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung
In 1999, the South Korean Parliament officially enacted the Film Act Amendment Act, which would replace film censorship with a film rating system in 2000.
Decades of shackles were instantly loosened, the creative environment of Korean films became increasingly relaxed, and the characteristics of films as a national industry were gradually highlighted.
For the suffocating Korean films, there is about to usher in a wave of "retaliatory" creations, controversial, sensitive enough, violent and bloody, how dangerous and how to come.
So we understand why so many good Korean political films have popped up.
What opened this gate was jiang digui's [life and death espionage] in 1999.
[Life and Death Spy]
Since its release in South Korea on February 13, 1999, the film set a box office record in Korean film history with 6.21 million hits (The Korean film box office ranking is counted by the number of viewers), breaking the original record of 4.17 million [Titanic].
After the release of the market share of nearly 40%, it is a well-deserved "national film"
[Life and Death Spy Change] not only sounded the clarion call for the revitalization of the Korean film industry, but also opened the golden age of Korean political films in the new century.
Although the subject matter of creation is very extensive, the favorite korean political films are nothing more than the following three categories, which are also the "three axes" of Korean political films.
One was the GZ incident that took place in the early 1980s.
Looking back at Korean political films since the new century, works set in the GZ incident or involved in this event are leading in quality and quantity.
In chronological order, representative works include [Mints] [Ancient Courtyard] [Gorgeous Holiday] [Nam Young Cave 1985] [Defender] [Park Lie] and so on.
Li Cangdong [Mints]
The most well-known of these were [Gorgeous Holiday] and [Park Lie], who viewed the event from different perspectives from the perspectives of participants and onlookers, respectively.
[Park Lie] also became the 2017 Korean film box office champion with 12.18 million viewers. The high output of South Korean political films and the willingness of the South Korean people to buy them have also formed a virtuous circle.
And the latest [Ministers of Namsan] can also be seen as a prequel to [Park Lie].
The second is the historical trauma of North and South Korea. The Korean Peninsula is bounded by the "38th Line" and is divided into North and South Korea.
Partition is an eternal pain in the hearts of the Korean people, and it is also the core of Korean political films with North and South Korean themes.
From the earliest [Life and Death Spy] to [Double Agent] to [Common Security Area], there are also [Unknown Recipients] [Bold Family] [Welcome to Dongmo Village] [Hidden and Great] [Dou ManJiang] [Iron Rain] [Agent] and so on.
Zhang Lu [Dou Manjiang]
It can be found that films with North and South Korean themes involve many types, including spy films, comedies and literary films.
Among them, the showdown between agents and spies between North and South Korea is the most common, and in the context of ethnic division, they are secretly fighting and calculating with each other, but they are actually compatriots and still maintain brotherhood.
[Common Security Area]
In the words of Park Chan-wook, director of the [Common Security District], "Separation is not a tragedy, but a satire." Since the common garrison is not simply separated, it has significance as a symbolic place. There, if the line is crossed, the joke becomes a tragedy. ”
The third is the humanistic reflection of World War II, Korea as a Japanese colony, and the devastation it encountered. Representative films include [Han Ji-so], [Landing Day], [Assassination], [Ghost Town], [Deok Hye-won], [Gunkanjima], [I can say] [Dictionary] and so on.
[Managaha Island]
In addition to this "three-plate axe", another more direct expression of Korean political films is documentaries based on real people and real events.
There are [Miss President] based on Park Geun-hye's "Girlfriend Gan Zhengmen"; there are documentaries about the late President Roh Moo-hyun [I am Roh Moo-hyun]; there are [accomplices] focusing on the collusion of former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak; As well as the investigation of the whereabouts of Lee Myung-bak's bribery fund [Reservoir Game], etc.
[Accomplices] poster
In the 60s and 70s of the last century, Korean films were absent at the time when the world was turbulent and political films appeared in a pile; at the beginning of the new century, Korean films came to the fore, and now in addition to "film industry" and "genre films", "political films" have also become an important label for Korean films.
Political films are the biggest commercial films
Director Huang Jianxin said: "Political themes are one of the genre films. Political films are the biggest commercial films, and the influence of content is the largest. ”
The so-called "genre elements" of genre films refer to the parts of such films that refer to and vent the audience's desires, so as to obtain commercial benefits.
When we look at political films as genre films, what are its "genre elements"?
It's "power," which is a genre element of political films.
This, in turn, indirectly contributes to the spectacle of political cinema as a genre film—power struggles, individual struggles for groups, internal struggles at the top, and struggles between classes.
The expression of political films under the core of "power struggle" is not limited to a narrow single form, it can be integrated with various genre films, war films, comedies, romance films, road films can be.
Fusion with comedy [Welcome to Dong mo village]
[Spy Girl] Fused with Romance
In other words, there are no political films in the world, or every movie is a political movie.
In this way, those historical events that are related to pain, about forgetting, and about loss are further dissolved under the wrapping of entertainment and commerce. For Korean audiences, there is no obstacle to acceptance.
It is no wonder that in the history of Korean cinema, among the 26 films that have grossed more than 10 million people, political films account for 6: [International Market] [Assassination] [Park Lie] [Taiji Flag Flying] [Defender] [Shio Island].
[Tai Chi flag fluttered], and the number of moviegoers was 11.74 million
Korean political films have gradually become the most appealing genre films at the box office. Korean filmmakers are responsible for enhancing the artistic value of a film, while the distribution and production system is responsible for expanding its influence.
Borrow your wine glass and pour me a block.
Speaking back to us from Korea. Why do we love to watch Korean political movies, wipe tears from the historical trauma of other people's homes, and then silently give them five-star praise?
"The creators choose a certain historical era as the era to be told, and place their character stories in certain historical scenes, which is undoubtedly based on the social reality in which they are placed."
When we're grading Korean political films, what are we scoring?
It's not just about rating this film, it's also about giving us the environment we want to create.
Resources:
Yue Shengsong. Film and International Politics: Power, Representation and Construction[N], Journal of Chongqing Jiaotong University, 2017
ZHANG Yan. Observations on the Creation of Korean Political Films in Recent Years[J].Film Review, 2019(9)
Nie Xinru. Political Film as a Genre Film[J].Art Hundred, 2019(2), 131-136
Jun Bing. The Vivid Discourse of Mainstream Discourse: An Analysis of Korean Contemporary Political Films[J]
Ling Zhenyuan. On the "Political Film" Popular in the World Film World[N], Journal of Shanghai Normal University, 1995(4), 76-82
Yue Li. Film Studies on Korean Political Events[M], M.S. Thesis, Southwest University, 2017
How to evaluate [The Ministers of Namsan] this movie