Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Terrell-4 For those who enjoy political conspiracies, especially when laced with matter-of-fact coolness, blood pooling on the floors and enough confusion to make things believable, The President's Last Bang (Geuddae Geusaramdeul) is a fine, odd movie. Nearly all of the film is the story, more-or-less factual, of the last hours of the repressively authoritarian and corrupt Korean President Park Chun-hee, and then the maneuvering that followed. President Park, who seized power in a military coup in 1961, decides to have another of his increasingly frequent private dining evenings with one or two young girls, attended usually by his brutal and sycophantic chief bodyguard, his toadying chief secretary and his watchful head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-Kyu. Fine food is prepared, liquor is poured generously, and the girls entertain and prepare themselves for private entertainment later with the president. We realize the KCIA Director Kim is slowly losing favor. The president makes suggestions to him with a smile or a frown. Kim's compatriots take their cue from the president and make slighting references to the work of the KCIA. Repression is the order of the day, and the KCIA, no pussycat organization as it is, is seen by President Park and his sycophants as not being repressive enough. At the same time Director Kim is losing patience with the president's preoccupation with pleasure. "Never make a big deal about what goes on below the belly button," one high-ranking official advises. The date is October 26, 1979. In the middle of this tipsy, unpleasant party, Director Kim excuses himself for a moment. He tells two trusted subordinates that tonight is the night. This is something they've thought about. Then he takes a revolver in his hand, returns to the party and puts a bullet into the chief bodyguard, then into the President. The lights go out and as Kim's men hear the gunfire, they shoot down most of the remaining bodyguards. Since his gun jammed, Kim takes another gun, returns to the party room, pulls up the president who is still alive and puts a second bullet into the man's head. Then he casually finishes off the groaning chief bodyguard. As his men restore order, Kim tries to gain the Army's support. It doesn't work. The last part of the movie tells us all about how disorderly the highest reaches of government were during the dark, early morning hours after the assassination. Then we learn about the fates of Director Kim and his men. All this is presented with such "I am a camera" directness that the mundane self-interest, the careful protocols of power, the casual corruption and pervasive cynicism of government at these high levels almost turns the movie into a black comedy. For those who believe their sausages are made under the most hygienic conditions and who trustingly never read the list of animal parts that make up the meat, this movie might seem just as foreign as the country it comes from. Unfortunately, no government has captured the market on incompetence, venality, self-interest and rear-end kissing. At first we begin to sympathize with Kim, and then we have to keep remembering the KCIA was just as full of thugs as every other group. Humiliation and beatings were, and may still be, the common currency to maintain discipline and authority. Kim gradually seems motivated more by resentment and irritation than any particular feelings about democracy. How on earth did some of these people achieve power...and then we realize the same question can be asked about all governments. The movie may be something of an oddity, but it's an engrossing one.

kelshawd Think of a few movies that are fictionalized versions of major political events: Raid on Entebbe, Reds, or Black Hawk Down. When I put The President's Last Bang in that category, I have to call it comparatively dull. I grew up watching the Billy Jack movies, followed by Mad Max. The oppressors weren't just bullies that abandoned little old ladies by the side of the road. They raped them first, and then through them out of the car. In The Boys From Brazil, the Nazis were unconscionable. Raid on Entebbe had shoot outs, and in Reds, the union sympathizers were badly beaten. I was furious. Not so in The President's Last Bang And on top of all that, I watched this story move forward and out of the blue, the KICA director is suddenly talking to his subordinates about shooting the president. Did I miss something? He didn't have to twist their arm to get compliance. There was no patriotic sentiment, and no pre-meditation. The script was short and required more development. It was not engaging at all. The other elements in the movie were lost to a weakly constructed story. The dolly shots, the billiard close-up, the president's palatial rooms, all were wasted on me for lack of interest. Given the nature of the politics surrounding these events, the director may have had limited access to facts. Nevertheless, in the USA, these types of stories are embellished enough to keep the viewer interested and at least give the tone of a given event, if not the whole truth (which is why I don't watch that much of this type of stuff.) I give it a 6 for craft and an 8.5 for having the guts to make the movie.

chivalry_is_dead I'm-Sang Soo's "President's Last Bang" is an awesome piece of cinema, a throwback to the paranoid political thrillers of the 70s like "The Conversation," "The Parallax View" and "All the President's Men." The film revolves around the true story about an assassination attempt made on President Park Chun-hee and its aftermath.Saw this at Telluride and was blown away by the pitch black comedy, Kim Woo-hyeong's incredible super 35mm cinematography, and the fluid tracking shots.The director described this film as in the vein of "Goodfellas" and the "Godfather" trilogy.For those who are fiending for more quality Korean cinema after "Oldboy," this is definitely worth seeking out.

Jamester I saw this recently at the Toronto International Film Festival to a packed house with the director present. I liked it.It comes across as a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the the 1979 president's assassination. It was believable, suspenseful, and occasionally funny, if you can imagine that! This was the work of someone who really cared to bring a defining historical moment into the modern psyche, to raise some important questions about Korean society.In my mind, this is what movies should be about -- defining moments of time. And crafting a story that allows the viewer to be drawn into the circumstances, to be shown a view of how things may have happened without being dogmatic or overly judgmental. Kudos to the director to crafting an even-keeled drama that, I suspect is accessible to a large international audience.