Directed by: Woo Min-ho (우민호) Starring: Lee Byung-hun (이병헌), Lee Sung-min (이성민), Kwak Do-won (곽도원), Lee Hee-jun (이희준), Kim So-jin (김소진) Release Date: January 22nd, 2020
Every year we get one or two big movie releases that help tell the story of how post war Korea developed into the country that we know and love today. Rich with political intrigue and controversy, films like 1987: When the Day Comes (2017), A Taxi Driver (2017), and The Attorney (2013) almost feel like puzzle pieces as they fit together to illuminate this dark and recent history that has both historians and the general public still working to make sense out of. It is safe to say that the nation’s development was no easy road. Based on true events, The Man Standing Next is yet another chapter in Korea’s tumultuous political history as it recounts the 40 days leading up to the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in October of 1979.
As the film’s opening titles state, the KCIA (Korean Central Intelligence Agency) wielded immense power and played a critical role in keeping President Park Chung-hee (Lee Sung-min) in power for nearly 18 years. They were viewed as the right-hand men of Park (which is most likely how the English title of the film was derived).
When former KCIA director Park Yong-gak (Kwak Do-won) threatens to publish a damning memoir highly critical of President Park and the current state of the government in Korea, emergency measures are taken to reign in the former director before irreparable damage and international embarrassment is made. President Park then sends current KCIA director Kim, a long time friend of the president’s, to clean up the situation. All the while, the President’s chief of security (Lee Hee-joon) who encourages more unforgiving authoritarian policies begins to garner more and more of the president’s favor. This begins to threaten the established power hierarchy and puts into question just where exactly the loyalties of each man stands.
From secret meetings and safe houses, covert listening devices, kidnappings and assassinations, The Man Standing Next ticks nearly all the boxes and firmly establishes itself as a major new addition to the spy genre. Beautifully photographed over three continents, the 70’s style suits and other costuming of the politicians and secret agents were on point. The cold and calculated look and feel of the film is downright chilling at times. The darkly lit claustrophobic office interiors are also nicely balanced with some beautiful wide exteriors of the National Mall in Washington D.C. and Palace Vendome in Paris.
And while also a big undertaking and featuring a fairly large roster of characters, director Woo Min-ho seems more focused with The Man Standing Next than with his 2018 crime lord epic The Drug King. Every scene builds on top of the next, providing insight into the minds of the men involved and marking key moments in a chain reaction series of events that culminate into an incredibly dramatic final confrontation. But while most likely done for historical accuracy, there are probably two or three characters too many given on-screen titles to signify their importance. I found myself taking the liberties of Netflix’s rewind function to reinforce certain names and faces to memory only to find them having very little impact on the overall course of events.
Performances are also more understated than in either of director Woo’s previous films, The Drug King (2018) or Inside Men (2015). Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North, The Witness) as President Park Chung-hee, who they got to physically resemble quite well, has a very commanding screen presence. He often gives cold looks with his dead eyes that could kill. Lee Byung-hun (I Saw the Devil, Keys to the Heart) is reserved yet strong in his portrayal of the KCIA director responsible for killing the president. The character holds much of his inner thoughts to himself, making the motivations for his actions suitably mysterious and well up for debate as they are in actuality.
But my favorite aspect of The Man Standing Next was the exploration of the interpersonal drama at the heart of the assassination. The crime always gets the headline, but the motivations are often more intriguing. In The Man Standing Next, the main players are such close friends. Questions like, “What could drive close confidants to the point of murdering one another?” Here, was the crime committed out of jealousy and anger? Or did it come from a feeling of national duty? As with many real cases, the answers are often more complex than we can imagine and come with layers of ambiguity.
Unfortunately, the relationships between the main characters are not defined as clearly as they could be. This would have undoubtedly been difficult to pull off since The Man Standing Next only focuses on the 40 days that led up to the assassination. But if the foundations for the friendships could have been better established, the dramatic decisions made by each of the men would have reinforced the severity of the betrayals and heightened an overall environment of paranoia and mistrust.
The Man Standing Next succeeds not only as a finely crafted spy thriller, but being based on true events brings that extra level of engagement to the drama as it unfolds. This sense is heightened through the occasional use of photographs and audio recordings of the actual men involved in the story that inspired the film. Former KCIA Director Kim, convicted of assassinating the president, is quite a controversial figure in Korea. His actions and statements have been described as contradictory at times, and the film does a good job presenting him as a conflicted individual. And unlike some Korean films surrounding historic or otherwise political events, The Man Standing Next does not try to shove a particular narrative down our throats. Instead, it attempts to respectably present the drama from several sides. The phenomenal performances, historical significance, and slick adherence to spy genre conventions make The Man Standing Next practically essential viewing.
P.S. There was a film released in 2005 called The President’s Last Bang that depicts the specific assassination day of president Park Chung Hee in more depth and had some legal trouble surrounding its release. It’s overall approach was more tongue in cheek than The Man Standing Next and featured a rather scathing critique of President Park. But perhaps the scandal surrounding the now ousted and jailed President Park Guen-hye, the country’s first female president and daughter to Park Chung-hee, helped to pave the road for The Man Standing Next as public sentiment now tilts heavily towards one end of the political spectrum.
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