Image: Poster for A Man Who Heals the City. Credit: Cinecube.
One of the stars of Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s impeachment trial was Acting Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mun Hyeong-bae 문형배 헌법재판소장 권한대행, who managed the difficult process of crafting a unanimous decision to remove Yoon from office. With Mun’s heightened profile, a 2023 documentary about the philanthropist who enabled Mun’s public service is also drawing renewed attention.
Born in 1944, Kim Jang-ha 김장하 was a successful practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do Province 경상남도 진주. Kim has been providing scholarships to low-income students in the area since his 20s, even before he became a financial success, and has awarded scholarships to more than 1k students over the years - including Mun. Kim also spent more than KRW 10b (USD 7.1m) to establish Myeongsin High School 명신고등학교 in 1983, and donated the entire school to the government to be turned into a public school in 1991 - the only such donation in South Korean history.
Despite being a local celebrity in Jinju, Kim has assiduously avoided the spotlight, declining all interviews and rarely appearing at public functions. His story did not receive national attention until the mid-2010s, when local journalists Kim Ju-wan 김주완 and Kim Hyeon-ji 김현지 began a seven-year quest to create a record of what they believed to be an especially meaningful life. The result was the documentary A Man Who Heals the City 어른 김장하, which was released November 15, 2023. With renewed interest in Kim Jang-ha’s philanthropy, the documentary re-opened in theaters on April 10.
