My Teacher, Mr. Kim

My Teacher, Mr. Kim
My Teacher, Mr. Kim movie poster
Hangul	선생 김봉두
Hanja	先生 김봉두
Revised Romanization	Seonsaeng Kim Bong-du
McCune–Reischauer	Sŏnsaeng Kim Pong-tu
Directed by	Jang Kyu-sung
Written by	Jang Kyu-sung Lee Won-hyeong
Produced by	Kim Mi-hee
Starring	Cha Seung-won Byun Hee-bong Sung Ji-ru
Cinematography	Kim Yun-su
Edited by	Ko Im-pyo
Music by	Jo Seong-woo
Distributed by	Cinema Service
Release date	March 28, 2003 (2003-03-28)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

My Teacher, Mr. Kim (Korean: 선생 김봉두; RR: Seonsaeng Kim Bong-du; lit. "Teacher Kim Bong-du") is a 2003 South Korean comedy-drama film about a man's transformation from a flawed scoundrel into a conscientious teacher when he gets transferred to a rural village school.^[1]

Plot[]

Kim Bong-doo is a young teacher in a Seoul elementary school. He comes to school later than the students, and is scolded by the principal every day. Instead of preparing lesson plans, he goes drinking at room salons, and he actively encourages and coaxes parents to give him bribe money in exchange for his favoring their children. But one day, he finally gets caught in the act, and becomes the target of parent complaints.

So Mr. Kim gets temporarily transferred to the boondocks, a branch school in a remote village in Gangwon Province. In the countryside, cell phones are useless and even buying cigarettes at the nearest corner store is out of the question. There are only five students in the whole school, and he's also discontented with the extremely naive villagers who offer him all sorts of vegetables and fruits instead of money. To make matters worse, a grumpy old man named Mr. Choi blackmails him into teaching him the Korean alphabet.

Driven to near insanity by boredom and peace, Mr. Kim maps out a plan to transfer all of his students to Seoul, thereby closing down the rural school. For starters, Mr. Kim begins an after-school program to focus on developing each student's special talents so that they'll want to get a better education in Seoul. Contrary to his bad intentions, this results in a happy, supportive environment for the children and the village community, such that the school officials reconsider their policy of closing down the school because of Mr. Kim's "wonderful devotion" to the kids.

But when a businessman unexpectedly appears, saying he'd like to turn the school into a survival game site, Mr. Kim becomes tempted by money once again.

Cast[]

• Cha Seung-won ... Kim Bong-doo
• Byun Hee-bong ... Mr. Choi
• Sung Ji-ru ... Chun-shik
• Lee Jae-eung
• Kim Eung-soo ... Nam-ok's father
• Lee Jae-gu
• Ku Bon-rim
• Jung Jin-gak ... Seoul principal
• Park Soo-il ... leisure businessman
• Seo Hee-seung ... Gangwon principal

References[]

External links[]

• Official website (in Korean)
• My Teacher, Mr. Kim at the Korean Movie Database
• My Teacher, Mr. Kim at IMDb
• My Teacher, Mr. Kim at HanCinema