The Regime Changes from the Eyes of a Third Person

           In the movie President’s Barber, it is interesting to see the regime changes from the perspective of a commoner. As many Korean historical soap operas and movies focus on the leaders and political actors, people are well aware of the historical context during Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan era. While I was watching the movie, I felt that I was looking at a narrative of the real life witness at the time. Also, it is important to notice how the main character transforms from pro-government to anti-government. Hanmo, the president’s barber, has no idea whatsoever in terms of politics and he supports President Rhee Syngman even though he commits the fraudulent election. He also has no idea what young adults are doing on the 19^th of April in 1960. He transports injured students to hospital while his wife is in labor. 4.19 Movement functioned as a shock to the Rhee administration because students heavily criticized March 15^th election in 1960. The movie sends the audience a message how people were unknowledgeable of political issues through portraying Hanmo who eventually realizes what is happening in the country after encountering series of unexpected incidents. Even though Hanmo is working as the president’s barber in Blue House, he is still uncertain of what is happening. The director might have wanted to transmit a message that the public did not have much information about political issues, and the director might have wanted to portray how common people during this time were such easy prey for people in power and plus lack of properly structured civil society. Perhaps, the movie shows the transition period from closed society to much more open society in the present time by portraying one individual who realizes how he is politically manipulated. However, on the other hand, I think it is possible for Hanmo to say something critical to the president—“you are in the office for so long”—because Hanmo represents the common everyman figure. There is an old saying that ignorance is bold. The director probably throws out the statement to criticize some flaws and errors those in power had committed in the past.

             On the 4^th of April 2014, the talk on mega-churches in South Korea was held at McGill and this caught my eyes because two other courses that I am taking have dealt with the Korean churches. Christianity (Catholics and Protestants) has taken a critical role in supporting the democratization process in South Korea during the 1970s and 1980s. Church has been the only space that the government cannot label it communist; hence, some churches functioned as safety shelters for those who participated in the democratization movement in South Korea. Also, Korean Christianity had merged the traditional shamanistic values with the Christian faith so that Christianity has become more suitable for many people in South Korea. In the talk, the presenter mainly focuses on the development of mega-churches in South Korea and how gargantuan they are, the statistics and numbers come to me as a shock because I had no prior information how some mega-churches in South Korea are very structurally organized. Also, I did not know there are that many Christians in South Korea. Because of the size and structure of some mega-churches in South Korea, some of the presidents are members of those mega-churches. I realized that churches could also be used as a space for political campaign. I think I could also raise a discourse how the imported religious faith could be so successful while the neighboring country such as China and Japan did not have the similar experience like South Korea.