Third Cultural Post

[James Kim]

After learning about the history of the Korean presidency, I decided to watch a movie called The Lawyer which is based on the true story of the former president Noh-Moo-Hyun. Once just a lawyer trying to move up the ladder, Noh became a civil rights lawyer after seeing the corruption of then president Park-Jung-Hee who falsely arrested student protestors and tortured them because they accused them of being North Korean. Although this movie does not show Noh’s rise in politics, it focuses on Korea’s history of dictatorship and military brutality that not a lot of people outside of Korea are aware of. One thing I learned about when researching about this film was that former president Park-Geun-Hye, who is the daughter of Park-Jung-Hee, had a secret blacklist of key individuals in the entertainment business. This blacklist was for banning artists expressing political propaganda that went against Park’s views and ideas. The actor who portrayed Noh-Moo-Hyun, Song-Gang-Ho was in this blacklist because of The Lawyer. Although this movie took place in the 1980’s, a lot of conservatives are still against this type of political opposition. Many Americans may think the political divide between the Democrats and Republicans of the US is terrible but it is even worse in South Korea.