Director: Woo Min-ho
Writers: Ji-min Lee, Min-ho Woo
Stars: Lee Byung-Hun, Sung-min Lee, Do-won Kwak
Synopsis: In the 1970s Korea is under the absolute control of the president Park who controls the KCIA the organization with the edge over any branch of government.
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Woo Min-ho‘s The Man Standing Next begins with the death of the then president of South Korea, and vicious military dictator, Park Chung-hee, but is more concerned with the 40 days leading up to his assassination. Don’t worry, this is not a spoiler. The opening text explains the (very true) historical context for what you’re about to see. Yet while the attention to period detail is exquisite, and the cinematography itself top notch, The Man Standing Next proves to be a difficult movie to gain entry to. Perhaps a better understanding of Korean history would help to fill in some of the gaps, but ultimately the density of plot and non-linear approach to storytelling means it may deter those who don’t already have an interest in Korea.
Based on Kim Choong-Seek’s book KCIA Chiefs, The Man Standing Next focuses on the relationship between President Park’s government and the KCIA (Korean Central Intelligence Agency), which was essentially just an arm of government at that period of time. Former KCIA director Park Yong-gak (Kwak Do-won) is in America to testify at Koreagate and is writing a memoir laying bare the truths behind the Park administration. President Park sends current KCIA director Kim Gyu-pyeong (Lee Byung-hun) to America to obtain the manuscript and dispose of Park Yong-gak if necessary.
While in America, Kim begins to realize he isn’t as close to the President as he thought; American spies relay information to him about what they know of the Korean government. A man – code-named Iago – is closer to the President than even Kim himself, and who is in charge of offshore capital the President is trying to keep under wraps.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kim also must contend with President Park’s chief of security, Gwak Sang-cheon (Hee-joon Lee). Gwak is a sociopath and careerist, determined to usurp Kim as Park’s right hand man. To that effect he feeds the President’s worst tendencies, forcing Kim to make a decision about what is best for the future of Korea.
While the set-up is incredibly intriguing and stuffed with potential to explore Kim’s moral conundrum (does he conspire to assassinate his friend, the President? Or does he allow him to grow ever more corrupt and potentially affect the deaths of millions?), Director Woo doesn’t seem as interested in that. There are shades here of 70s paranoia thrillers such as The Conversation, and even hints of DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd, but any possibility of thrill is stopped in its tracks by the lengthy dialogue which probably requires repeated viewings to fully understand the context of. Conversations take place in alluring, fancy settings full of diplomats, as the cat and mouse game which Kim and Gwak play with each other escalates, but not until the final twenty minutes or so does the pacing pick up and we finally get what many of us came for.
Lee Byung-hun plays Kim as a quiet, buttoned-up man trying to do the right thing. Caught between a tyrannical despot and his moral obligations, he nevertheless is always calm and collected. Although he will be inexorably the cause of his friend’s death, such a hard decision seems above a man full of hesitancy and doubt. His journey is the moral center of the story, but it’s difficult to root for a man so stoic and unreadable. Although his crisis is clear, it’s not clear how he feels about it, or what might compel him to take action.
The Man Standing Next wants to be a John Le Carre novel, and there is fertile ground for it: although Korea has now recovered from its dictator President, he was in power for eighteen years, all of which were blighted with controversy and corruption. But for all the opportunities to explore the positions of its various main players, what we’re left with is a staid, plodding drama which feels too afraid to really explore its concepts.
Grade: C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5u5OKmqd-E
