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The President's Barber
The President's Barber
	Theatrical release poster
Hangul	효자동 이발사
Hanja	孝子洞理髮師
Revised Romanization	Hyojadong Ibalsa
McCune–Reischauer	Hyojadong Yibalsa
Directed by	Im Chan-sang
Written by	Im Chan-sang
Produced by	Choi Yong-bae
Starring	Song Kang-ho; Moon So-ri
Cinematography	Jo Yong-gyu
Edited by	Kim Hyun
Music by	Peter Schindler; Park Ki-heon; Lee Geun-hwa
Distributed by	Showbox
Release date	5 May 2004;
Running time	116 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

The President's Barber (Korean: 효자동 이발사; RR: Hyojadong Ibalsa) is a 2004 South Korean comedy drama film written and directed by Im Chan-sang. It follows a barber, his wife, and their only son through four decades of tumultuous Korean history. Much as in Forrest Gump, we see important moments in South Korean history through the eyes of the titular barber, who is drafted to be the official barber of President Park Chung Hee. The role of the barber is played by Song Kang-ho and Moon So-ri plays his wife.

Plot

Seong Han-mo is a barber who owns a shop in the president's neighborhood, the Blue House. Politically not very well-versed, he always joins his acquaintances' opinions and at first isn't aware what consequences result from president Rhee's resignation in 1960 after several student demonstrations. Rhee leaves a power vacuum that is soon filled by a military regime led by General Park Chung Hee who puts himself at the top of the government in 1963. Han-mo, however, has different concerns as his wife Min-ja brings a son into this world of politically turbulent times. Fortunately, Han-mo's barber shop is running well and he has no need to concern himself about how to feed his family anymore when KCIA-Chief Jang enters his shop and orders him to the president. From that day on simple-minded Han-mo is the president's barber and at least for his neighbors one of the most important people in the country.