The President’s Barber

The movie we just saw was very interesting, and as it was pointed out in class, it is hard not to notice the resemblance of the main character with Forrest Gump. Maybe it wasn’t only the character but even the style in which the movie was made, resembled the Hollywood movie (e.g. the narration, or even details like being unable to walk).

 However, what I found the most interesting was the character played by Song Kang-Ho (the barber). We have seen him previously in YMCA Baseball team, The Host, and in The Good the Bad the Weird, and every time he played the same type of character (of course not identical, but they all had something in common). His character always appeared a bit naïve, simpleminded, maybe putting on a foolish appearance, but at the same time he has one positive trait standing out. In all of those movies, he has those negative characteristics but he also has one central positive characteristic, which, because of the contrast with those negative traits, appears as being more important and defining than if it was present among other positive characteristics. For example, the Weird reveals at the end of the movie that he is more intelligent than he left to be understood; in YMCA his character was very talented in baseball; and in The Host even though he was a bit carefree he showed that he would do anything in order to save his daughter. In The President’s Barber we see him in a similar way, being a bit simpleminded, and naïve but at the same time he tries to do his best in being a respectable and principled person.  Being a regular barber wouldn’t have brought him any high status (he was even ridiculed by children) so it’s obvious that it wasn’t expected of him to have high education and etiquette. However, once he became the President’s barber we see him trying his best to follow the rules of a higher class (even though he does it with difficulty, it’s how hard he tries that makes him stand out).

After listening to the guest talk on Friday I could not help but wonder what does the increase in the number (and size) of churches actually means. A possible reason is that Christianity is on the rise in Korea, and maybe this is their peak period when they have developed so much they attract more attention than any other religion. But I don’t think this is the whole picture. Maybe there are more Christians now, but so are in many other places in the world and I don’t think I’ve seen anything like the Megachurches in Seoul (maybe Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or St Peter Basilica in Roma, but those are very old). I believe the Megachurches in Seoul are more of a result of economic development rather, then a proof of Christianizing. The same way a city starts building skyscrapers and office buildings when it’s doing well, Seoul’s Christian community has worked on investing in Churches. However, it’s interesting how they chose to invest in those humongous constructions when they could have invested the money in something else (or even in charity, but I’m not the one to judge). Another thing I remember that the speaker mentioned was: “Build it and they will come,” which makes me wonder whether they build those huge buildings in order to get more followers and not because they needed them.