Kingmaker

South Korea in the 1960s, under Park Chung-hee. Kim Woon-bum, from the opposition, has lost four elections in seven years; he speaks well and has no luck. Seo Chang-dae, a pharmacist who fled from the North, offers himself and starts running the campaign. His methods work and they are not clean. As Kim rises, the two of them come apart. Byun Sung-hyun wrote and directed the film, taking it from Kim Dae-jung and the strategist who worked on his campaigns; the names are changed and the events freely invented. The telling clears nobody: the tension between the ideal and the tactic is its real subject, and it does not say who is right. Sul Kyung-gu plays the politician and Lee Sun-kyun the strategist. Byun was named best director at the Baeksang Arts Awards for it.