The President's Barber Essay

The President’s Barber is a fiction film that tells a story of a barber and his family through many decades of Korean history, specifically focusing on the political aspect. Although the film is fiction, it uses real South Korean figures and events throughout the movie as a way to get the audience more engaged for which they may have known those figures or events in their time as citizens. For those who were not around during the time that those figures or events have occurred, the film was able to bring more information to viewers as they are able to learn more about the history of South Korea in a different perspective. The film started off with the introduction of Kang-ho and his personality as his fellow neighbors influenced his decisions …show more content…
We were able to see into the daily life of the President and all the rules and gestures that Han-mo had to learn being by his side. It was also refreshing to see how South Korea’s government is through Han-mo’s unbiased eyes. He was neither a strong supporter of the government nor hating the government. It seems that he is just a normal citizen doing things as he is told and getting through the day in order to support his family. Thankfully through this main character’s unbiased ways of seeing things, viewers were able to see both the good and the bad that was occurring. We were able to witness what dictatorship is like for normal citizens having to abide by officials’ rules. This is again very different from how things work in the United States as it is the country of freedom. It is interesting that this film assignment is set to be due the week of elections, allowing us to have more intake and thoughts about our own country and helping us make a decision as to who we should vote for president. Do we want to fall under someone who is full of hatred and evilness, which may be doing dictatorship-like things like incidents in this film? Overall, the film was definitely an interesting lesson aside from reading the textbook and attending lectures. Compared to the last two film assignments, this one was an actual film in which there were more ways to interpret what was happening in the film, making it a lot more enjoyable to watch and learn at the same