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45. The General's Must...
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 Home > Feature> 100 Korean Films |
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The General's Mustache (Janggun-ui suyeom) (1968)
 Director : Lee Seong-Ku
Production Company : Tae Chang Enterprises Co., Ltd
Date of Rate : 1968-09-14
Running Time : 103 min.
Opening Theater : Myeong Bo Theater
Genre : Literary Art
Staff :
Writer : Lee Eo-Ryeong
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Kim Seung-Ok
Producer : Kim Tae-Su
Executive Producer : Ahn Seung-Jun
Director of PhotoGraphy : Jang Seok-Jun
Gaffer : Cha Jeong-Nam
Music : Kim Hee-Jo
Art Director : Lee Mun-Hyeon
Editor : Yoo Jae-Won
Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Shin Seong-Il, Yoon Jung-Hee, Kim Seung-Ho
Synopsis
The movie begins with the mysterious death of a journalistic photographer named Kim Cheol-hun. Veteran police detective Park (Kim Seung-ho) teams up with a young, intellectual detective (Kim Seong-ok) to investigate the people surrounding Kim. His landlord, his mother, and his younger sister offer no substantial clues. Finding a letter to Kim from novelist Han Jeong-wu, the detectives meet with Han, who tells them about a novel entitled The General's Mustache that Kim wrote. The novel tells the story of a great general who liberates his nation. The people grow mustaches like the general's as a tribute to him, but the protagonist refuses to do so and becomes an outcast. After talking to Han, the detectives find nothing suspicious about him. Instead, they go to former dancer Sin-hye (Yoon Jung-hee), who used to live with Kim, and hear the details about his life. According to Sin-hye, Kim was a romantic, but he could not adapt to reality. Sin-hye had fallen for his romantic sensibility, but eventually she tired of him and left him. Kim's death occurred shortly afterwards. The police rule his death a suicide.
Notes
 "A movie that used new visual language to deftly portray the social atmosphere and human consciousness of late-1960s Korea through the quotidianness of life" (Lee Young-il)
The General's Mustache has been called "a masterpiece of Korean modernist cinema" (Yi Hyo-in). At the time of its release, it garnered the highest critical acclaim as a film that "raised the level of Korean movies" (Kim Jong-won) and marked "the pinnacle of Korean moviemaking. "Using a mystery structure reminiscent of Citizen Kane, The General's Mustache tackles a highly conceptual theme: the loneliness and alienation of modern human beings. The movie's opening sequence introduces Kim Cheol-hun's death, then starts to delve into the reason behind his death through the investigation of two detectives. In this way, The General's Mustache deviates from the usual linear narrative based on events; instead, it structures the narrative by presenting the main character's death first and recreating the possible causes via the testimonies of his acquaintances. Through their stories, the reason for Kim's death gradually begins to take shape. Like the protagonist of his novel, Kim was a social misfit who refused to grow a mustache or was incapable of it. When his girlfriend Sin-hye, who was his last salvation, leaves him, he is unable to bear the loneliness and despair, and chooses to end his own life. Ultimately, it is the isolation and alienation of modern society that drives Kim to his death. The exploration of such a subject, along with the movie's unusual form, delivered quite a shock to the Korean film industry at the time. The General's Mustache was recognized as a work that revolutionized Korean moviemaking by approaching human consciousness through a new cinematic language. The use of animation in visualizing the storyline of Kim's novel is a particularly innovative attempt.
Afterword:
- Despite the prediction that it would fail commercially due to its dark and abstruse content, The General's Mustache succeeded in drawing an audience of 100,000 at the box office.
- The animation used in the mid-part of the movie is the work of Shin Dong-hun, who directed Korea's first animated feature film, A Story of Hong Gil-dong (Hong gil-dongjeon).
Director Bio: Lee Seong-ku (1928- )
He is the younger brother of director Lee Byeong-il and worked under him as an assistant director. He made his directorial debut in 1960 with A Young Look (Jeolm-eun pyojeong) (1960) which was praised for "its new visual style." He also received critical acclaim for The General's Mustache (Janggun-ui Suyeom) (1968), which expressed the social climate of the times through a modernistic visual language. He also made When Bucketwheet Flowers Blossom(Memilkkot Pil Muryeop) (1967), considered one of the greatest "literature films" to be made and The Story of Chunhyang (Chunhyangjeon) (1971) which was the first Korean movie to be shot on 70mm film.
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