Seong Han-mo as a Victim of Circumstance

The President's Barber (2004) shows the life of a typical barber living in a not-so typical neighbourhood, which ultimately changes his life and that of his family's. The barber, Seong Han-mo, is played by Song Kang-ho, who we have seen in several other movies. In each film, he plays the 'every day man'-- seemingly harmless and a little silly at times. He reprises that sort of character here, making it seem like all the events in his life happened because he was a victim of circumstance.

Seong Han-mo does not seem like an exceptional barber. He just happened to live in the president's neighbourhood, and then his friend just happened to suggest putting up a photo of the president, which the government happened to see. And that chain of events led to him becoming the president's barber. But there is this lack of agency on Han-mo's part. This does take away from his accomplishments, but mostly, it takes away his blame.

Han-mo took his son, Seong Nak-han (Lee Jae-Eung), to the police station because Nak-han had diarrhea, which was supposed to be a symptom of communism. The interrogation that Nak-han had to go through included electro-shock tactics, which led to him losing the use of his legs when he was finally released. While Nak-han was still in custody, Kim Min-Ja (Moon So-Ri) blamed Han-mo for losing their son. As a viewer, I understood where she was coming from, but did not put the same level of blame on him because Han-mo never seemed like the kind of guy who knew what he was getting into. He took Nak-han to the police station assuming they would just babysit him, which is naive considering the tension in the community, but he just seems like that kind of guy who would not know better.