# The General's Son II (장군의 아들 2)
**The General's Son II** (장군의 아들 2; also romanized *Janggunui adeul II* and released internationally as *Son of a General II*) is a 1991 South Korean action film directed by Im Kwon-taek and the second installment of his three-part *General's Son* series about the real-life street fighter Kim Du-han during the Japanese colonial period.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) • [2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683) It was produced by Taehung Pictures on the strength of the first film's box-office success and opened in Korean theaters on July 20, 1991, with a running time of 103 minutes and an age rating of 15 and above.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) • [2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | July 20, 1991 (South Korea); 103 minutes; rated 15 and over[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) |
| Director / studio | Im Kwon-taek; Taehung Pictures (producer Lee Tae-won)[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) |
| Series position | Second of three films released 1990–1992, following *The General's Son* (1990)[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683) • [3](https://namu.moe/w/%EC%9E%A5%EA%B5%B0%EC%9D%98%20%EC%95%84%EB%93%A4) |
| Lead cast | Park Sang-min (Kim Du-han), Shin Hyun-joon (Hayashi), Lee Il-jae (Kim Dong-hui), Song Chae-hwan[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) |
| Admissions | 357,697[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) |
| Awards (1992) | Lee Il-jae, Best New Actor at the Paeksang Arts Awards; Shin Hyun-joon, Best New Actor at the Daejong Film Awards[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683) |
| Key crew | Screenplay Lee Youn-taek; original story Hong Song-yu; cinematography Jung Il-sung; music Shin Byung-ha[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in the late 1930s, at the end of the Japanese colonial occupation. Kim Du-han (Park Sang-min) fights a full-scale battle against Hayashi (Shin Hyun-joon), the Japanese yakuza boss coveting the Jongno district, and wins, consolidating his position as the leading fist of Jongno.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) • [6](https://www.cinematheque.co.kr/cine/19910095) A fated rivalry then develops between Du-han and Kim Dong-hui (Lee Il-jae), Hayashi's right-hand man, over the woman Song Chae-hwan; Chae-hwan falls in love with Dong-hui, and the tormented Du-han picks a quarrel with a Japanese officer and is taken to the military police interrogation room. Chae-hwan gives herself to the military police chief to save Du-han and then disappears.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62)
When Du-han raids a Japanese company trafficking opium, Hayashi's gang goes on alert, and Setsuko, a Japanese kisaeng (Korean woman trained in singing, dancing, and entertaining) who loves Du-han, tips him off about the gang's planned attack.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) Du-han, defending the Korean merchants' commercial district, and Hayashi's gang fight a major battle in the middle of Jongno. In the closing episode, Jongno merchants band together to block the military police pursuing the fleeing Du-han.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) A fuller synopsis adds that the sequel opens with Du-han's release from prison, his rebuilding of the Jongno gang after Hayashi's ambush, and his recruitment of the Mapo boss Jeong Chun-sik and other regional bosses before the final confrontation.[7](https://m.kinolights.com/season/9711)
## Production and context
The first *General's Son* (1990) caused a box-office sensation and wrote a new page in Korean film commercial history, and the sequel was made on the strength of that success.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683) Im Kwon-taek and cinematographer Jung Il-sung, the pair behind the first film, returned for the second, which began shooting at Beomseongpo and ran for roughly two months before a planned summer release.[4](https://v.daum.net/v/M0Bqsl4hND?f=p) The screenplay was written with the playwright and director Lee Youn-taek, working from the original story by Hong Song-yu.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683) • [1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62)
Casting across the series relied on open auditions. In 1990 Im announced that nearly all roles would be filled through public auditions, and the then-unknown Park Sang-min won the part of Kim Du-han after a single striking audition performance before judges including Ahn Sung-ki and [Kang Soo-yeon](https://www.edgepedia.org/kang-soo-yeon).[5](https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20081118/8659551/9)
## Cast and reception
The film drew on an ensemble of the era's young stars: Park Sang-min, Song Chae-hwan, Lee Il-jae, and Shin Hyun-joon.[6](https://www.cinematheque.co.kr/cine/19910095) Lee Il-jae, playing Kim Dong-hui in a fated confrontation with Kim Du-han, won the Best New Actor award at the Paeksang Arts Awards, and Shin Hyun-joon won Best New Actor at the Daejong Film Awards for his portrayal of Hayashi.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683)
The film recorded 357,697 admissions.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62) A contemporary account gives the same figure of 357,697 viewers for the July 20, 1991 release, against 162,600 for the third film released on July 11, 1992.[8](https://v.daum.net/v/M0M1ZNZnLD) It ranked among the top ten box-office films in Seoul for 1992's tally year and was released on VHS by Media Art on January 6, 1992.[9](https://wiki.onul.works/w/%EC%9E%A5%EA%B5%B0%EC%9D%98_%EC%95%84%EB%93%A4_2) The Korean Film Archive's cinematheque notes that the film faithfully recreates the period with open sets and spectacular action scenes.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683)
## Place in Korean action cinema
A scholarly study of the series by Song Hyo-jung, a literature scholar at the University of Seoul, places the *General's Son* films in the lineage of "Jongno action films" descending from the Myeongdong action films of the early 1970s, with Jongno and Myeongdong serving as symbolic spaces of colonial Seoul where gang conflicts are figured as a struggle for racial hegemony between colonial Korea and imperial Japan.[10](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001809638) The series is set in Jongno from 1939 to the early 1940s and draws on the real lives of actual gangsters, like classic gangster films, but its colonial setting gives it distinguishing features as Korean action cinema.[10](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001809638)
The same study identifies the series' signature as bare-fist action emphasizing recognition and loyalty, and notes that the films mobilized popular audiences' emotional nationalism to drive their commercial success while withholding a final victory from the hero at the endings, a divergence from other Jongno and Myeongdong action films that concluded with the triumph of nationalism or anti-communism.[10](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001809638) The Film Promotion Corporation's "Good Films" selection list from 1986 onward includes seven Im Kwon-taek films, among them *[The General's Son](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-generals-son)* and *The General's Son 2*.[11](https://journal.kci.go.kr/kdrama/archive/articlePdf?artiId=ART002297565)
## References
1. [장군의 아들 2 상세정보, 씨네21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=62)
2. [장군의 아들 2, 시네마테크KOFA, 한국영상자료원](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_002683)
3. [장군의 아들, 나무위키](https://namu.moe/w/%EC%9E%A5%EA%B5%B0%EC%9D%98%20%EC%95%84%EB%93%A4)
4. ['장군의 아들 Ⅱ' 법성포서 크랭크 인, 연합뉴스 via Daum](https://v.daum.net/v/M0Bqsl4hND?f=p)
5. [‘장군의 아들’ 박상민, 오디션 통과한 한방, 동아일보](https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20081118/8659551/9)
6. [장군의 아들 2, Cinematheque](https://www.cinematheque.co.kr/cine/19910095)
7. [장군의 아들 2 줄거리, 키노라이츠](https://m.kinolights.com/season/9711)
8. [‘장군의 아들’ 신화·비화, 스포츠칸 via Daum](https://v.daum.net/v/M0M1ZNZnLD)
9. [장군의 아들 2, 오늘의AI위키](https://wiki.onul.works/w/%EC%9E%A5%EA%B5%B0%EC%9D%98_%EC%95%84%EB%93%A4_2)
10. [송효정 (2013). 식민지 배경 종로액션영화 <장군의 아들> 연구. 한국문학이론과 비평 17(3), 77–102.](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001809638)
11. [박유희. 임권택 영화는 어떻게 정전(正典)이 되었나?](https://journal.kci.go.kr/kdrama/archive/articlePdf?artiId=ART002297565)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Action, thriller, and crime series film entries › Entries released in the 1990s*
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