Jo Yeong-jin Movies

A string of serial murders rock Seoul, Korea, forcing a medical physician and an aspiring detective to undertake their own amateur investigation, in this offbeat period mystery-thriller. The year is 1910, the place, the heart of the Joseon Dynasty. Hong Jin-Ho (Hwang Jeong-min) longs to establish himself as a private detective - and sees a move to America as his ticket out of Korea. Meanwhile, a local medical intern, Kwang-soo (Ryoo Deok-hwan), discovers a corpse in the woods and steals it to practice routine dissection - but it so happens that the body in question belongs to the son of the most powerful figure in Seoul. For this reason, Kwang-soo's possession of the body soon puts him at risk for being tagged as the murderer. Kwang-soo contemplates stealing away in the dead of night, but his path soon criss-crosses with that of Hong, and Kwang-soo asks him to find the murderer. Soon, a second body turns up, murdered in exactly the same way; the gentlemen then team up and use a cloth found in one victim's hand as a clue to track down the killer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Korean superstar Song Gang-ho (Memories of Murder) stars in writer/director Lim Chan-sang's ambitious feature debut, The President's Barber. Song stars as Seong Han-mo, a barber whose shop is within shouting distance of the "Blue House," where the president (Jo Yeong-jin) lives. The film takes place during the early '70s, a tumultuous period in South Korea's history, and Seong finds himself in the middle of a number of historical events. Seong doesn't know much about politics, and follows the lead of local leaders, who involve him in a scheme to rig an election in the president's favor. His son Nak-an (Lee Jae-eung) is born during the April 19 revolution, while soldiers are gunning down protestors in the street. Later, he inadvertently gets in the middle of a bitter political rivalry between Park (Park Yong-su), the head of the CIA, and Jang (Son Byeong-ho), the head of the secret service. When he inadvertently embarrasses Park, Jang rewards him by helping him become the president's personal barber. Park's prestige grows among his neighbors, and his life improves. Even his nagging wife, Min-ja (Moon So-ri of Oasis and A Good Lawyer's Wife), is proud of him. His relatively carefree, oblivious life is thrown into turmoil when the government starts rounding up people with diarrhea, purportedly to help them track down collaborators with sick North Korean spies. Little Nak-an gets sick, and Seong misguidedly tries to prove his loyalty to the dictator by turning the boy in, thinking no harm will come to him. But he's underestimated the brutal irrationality of his leaders. The President's Barber had its international premiere at the 2005 New York Korean Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide