Films based on true story continue to become dominating

Yeom Jeong-ah, left, and Moon Jung-hee in a scene from “Cart” / Korea Times

By Baek Byung-yeul

Looking upon a list of box office hit this year, it apparently seems to have shared some trends — they are based on true stories.

Starting from “The Attorney,” which depicts early days of late former President Roh Moo-hyun as a lawyer in the 1980s, and garnered whopping 11 million audiences, “Roaring Currents,” which portrays Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s dramatic victory over Japanese naval forces in the late 16th century, swept over the box office this summer, becoming the highest grossing film of all time in Korea.

In earlier this month, “Whistle Blower” dealing with stem cell researcher’s study fabrication scandal which happened in 2005 was also premiered and is well received, captivating more than 1.7 million audiences.

While local box office goes into off-season in this fall, two Korean films based on true story hit the big screen once again.

‘Cart’ sheds light on temporary employees

“Cart,” scheduled to be released on Nov. 13, deeply deals with the ongoing social issue of over six millions of contract workers who are in job insecurity.

The film revolves around contract employees at a retail store who fight for their rights against the company after being unfairly dismissed.

It is reportedly known that the film is based on true story of the struggle of temporary workers who were allegedly wrongfully fired from Korea branch of France-based retail giant Carrefour in 2007, but the director Boo Ji-young of “Cart” denied it, saying that the film has no correlation to the specific event.

“The film is partially motivated from the dispute between the employees at the retailer and the company, but it has no direct connection with that,” Boo said to the reporters at a press premiere last week.

“I have researched every case of temporary workers’ struggle against employer in Korea. This is a critical social issue that we must think together.”

Veteran actresses Kim Young-ae, Yeom Jeong-ah and Moon Jung-hee take roles of retail store employees who go on series of protests against the company that laid them off unreasonably.

A poster for “My Dictator” Korea Times

‘My Dictator’

Director Lee Hae-jun is known for his distinctive style of filmmaking as he has covered somewhat whimsical subjects in his previous films such as a traditional Korean wrestling player who wants to have a sex change surgery in “Like a Virgin” (2006) and a castaway who lives on a deserted island in Seoul’s Han River in “Castaway on the Moon” (2009).

Lee’s new film “My Dictator,” which mainly portrays conflict and reconciliation between father and son over 22 years, goes even further than his predecessors.

Veteran actor Seol Kyung-gu plays the role of father, an obscure stage actor, who is chosen to play a double for late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung by the South Korean government to prepare late former President Park Chung-hee for first-ever inter Korean summits in 1972. For his counterpart role, actor Park Hae-il stars as Seol’s son.

The actor, who doesn’t want to look incompetent to his son, endeavors to become the North Korean leader with spirit, but the scheduled summit misfires as we know from the historical facts.

The actor, who eventually cannot get out of his role as he pretends too much to be like the leader, lives like that for 20 years, and the son still doesn’t understand his father even after reaching manhood.

“I began writing the script of this film after reading a newspaper article that former President Park had a rehearsal with the stand-in of Kim Il-sung. That was the beginning of the filmmaking,” the director Lee said to the reporters on Oct. 20.

“But I tried to put my focus not on historical facts, but on father and son relationship and the procedure that the two recover relationship with each other,” Lee added.

“My Dictator” will be screened nationwide starting from this Thursday.