THE GENERAL’S SON

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THE GENERAL’S SON

Mar 12, 2019

Writer by Pierce Conran
View1770

1990｜108 MIN | Drama, Action

DIRECTOR IM Kwon-taek

CAST PARK Sang-min, SHIN Hyun-joon, KIM Hyung-il, LEE Il-jae

RELEASE DATE June 9, 1990

CONTACT Taehung Pictures

Tel +82 2 797 5121

Fax +82 2 797 5125

Prior to 2015, the general consensus among the Korean film industry was that the Colonial Era between 1910 and 1945, when Korea was a colony of the Japanese Empire, was box office poison as a setting for cinematic narratives. This view of course quickly changed as a raft of hits set in the period have been released in the past four years, but long before CHOI Dong-hoon’s Assassination (2015), PARK Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016) or KIM Jee-woon’s The Age of Shadows (2016), legendary director IM Kwon-taek’s The General’s Son topped the box office in 1990, becoming the most successful Korean film of all time up until that point and setting a trilogy of hits, all of which were directed in quick succession by the master director.

In the 1930s, street urchin Kim Doo-hwan quickly rises from theater snack seller to gang captain as he proves his mettle with his fists time and again as skirmishes break out in the Jongro area of Seoul, first between rival Korean factions, and then as they band together against a common yakuza enemy.

Capitalizing on its patriotic backdrop and the real life characters the film is based on - Kim Doo-hwan was a real life underworld figure who eventually rose into politics - while also mining the popularity of Hong Kong action films of the 1980s, The General’s Son struck a major chord with Korean viewers as a rare local blockbuster, full of action, suspense, romance and intense emotional standoffs.

With his macho viewpoint and somewhat conservative stance (a leading character and top fighter/student at one point proclaims that their studies will do no good in their struggle for independence), The General’s Son doesn’t align with the political and social leanings of today, yet from a narrative perspective its influence is still pervasive. As a recent example, the backstory between Kim Doo-hwan and his eventual final opponent mirrors the divided loyalties of the street urchins-turned rival gang captains played by LEE Min-ho and KIM Rae-won in YOO Ha’s Gangnam Blues (2015), another period gang story.

Contemporary Korean cinema fans may get a kick out of spotting HWANG Jung-min in his first ever screen role as the bar manager, not to mention stunt choreography legend JUNG Doo-hong who appears as a stunt double, flipping over tables and down staircases in the film’s climactic fights.

Following his trio of The General’s Son films, IM returned to more dramatic fare but was no less effective at conquering the charts, namely when his 1993 masterpiece Seopyeonje beat his own record to be crowned the new all-time Korean box office champ. Meanwhile, IM would return once more to the period gangster genre with Low Life in 2004 starring CHO Seung-woo, which was set a little later, in the 1950s.

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