Synopsis
Director JEON Chang-keun calls himself 'chief clown' and was actually a teacher at one time at the Sam Il School established by KIM Ku, resulting in his name being added to the Japanese authorities arrest list. He has produced a series of movies which are based in the last days of old Korea, so his telling the story of KIM Ku in his movie is no coincidence. < Ah! Baekbeom Kim Ku > centers around KIM Kus activities at the temporary Korean government set up in Shanghai and portrays his life from the time of the Donghak leading up to his assassination, and has become the prototype for all movies featuring KIM Ku. Rather than stressing the heroic deeds of the great man, the movie focuses on the internal pain of losing comrades and the human conflict he feels between the welfare of his family and the liberation of the people, maintaining dramatic tension which can often be easily lost. However, the true value of this movie lies in the method of expression rather than the contextual aspect of dealing with a peoples hero. < Ah! Baekbeom Kim Ku > eliminates excess narration and explanatory lines associated with historical movies and instead inserts scenes from documentaries and retains objectivity while also being equipped with sophisticated formative aesthetics unfamiliar to movies back then by utilizing simplified costumes and setting in a theatrical mis-en-scene. The cast, including director JEON Chang-keun who played KIM Ku himself, restricted their gestures and expressed a minimal amount of emotion to break free from the overacting prevalent at the time. (CHO Young-jung)