The assassination of the dictator Park Chung Hee by his intelligence chief Kim Chae-gyu was a momentous events in South Korean history, which garnered two feature-length filmic depictions released fifteen years apart in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The President's Last Bang, released in 2005, was an irreverent black comedy in which all those involved that fateful evening were villains in their own right. The Man Standing Next, from 2020, took a much different tack. Kim gained a righteousness and revolutionary motivation that had been absent in the portrayal in the earlier film, in which Kim's intentions remained open to interpretation. This article analyzes the changes in Kim's depiction in the context of shifting respective political contexts, particularly the impeachment of Park's daughter Park Geun-hye in 2016, and the shadow cast by the legacies of authoritarianism, the specter of which seemed to loom over Korea again during the younger Park's administration. Consequently, the outpouring of public fervor in the ensuing candlelight vigils reaffirmed societal support for democracy and consequently elevated Kim Chae-gyu, Park's bane, to the role of champion of Korean democracy when it seemed under threat once again.

独裁者朴正熙被情报局长金彩圭刺杀是韩国历史上的一件重大事件，两部相隔十五年、在二十一世纪前二十年上映的长篇电影描述了这一事件。2005 年上映的《总统的最后一击》是一部不敬的黑色喜剧，其中所有参与那个命运之夜的人本身都是恶棍。从 2020 年开始， 《The Man Standing Next》采取了截然不同的策略。金获得了前一部电影中所没有的正义感和革命动机，在这部电影中，金的意图仍然有待解释。本文分析了金正恩在各自政治背景变化的背景下的描述变化，特别是2016年朴槿惠女儿朴槿惠被弹劾，以及独裁主义遗产所投下的阴影，其幽灵似乎再次笼罩在韩国上空。在小朴执政期间。因此，在接下来的烛光守夜活动中，公众热情高涨，再次确认了社会对民主的支持，并在韩国民主似乎再次受到威胁时，将朴槿惠的祸根金彩圭提升为韩国民主捍卫者的角色。