Man of Will is a 2017 South Korean historical biographical drama film directed by Lee Won-tae, starring Cho Jin-woong and Song Seung-heon.

[5] In 1896, in the town of Chihapo (now in modern North Korea), Joseon, Kim Chang-soo murders a Japanese man who he believes may have been an assassin of Empress Myeongseong.

[7] During this time, his educational activities draw the particular ire of the prison director and Japanese sympathizer Kang Hyung-sik.

The emperor sends Kim a letter, personally thanking him for attempting to avenge the Empress's death.

[4][6] On 19 March 1898, Kim and several companions manage to escape from the prison, thanks to the guards turning a blind eye towards them.

[8] Lee justified the changes by saying that meticulously-accurate history usually had weak popular influence and remained confined in museums.

In fact, Kim was only forced to labor during his second imprisonment more than a decade after the time portrayed in the film, and on a harbor.

In particular, he wanted to emphasize how Japan's forced modernization efforts, in which thousands worked and died in slavery-like conditions, created projects that outwardly seemed beneficial to Korea but in actuality were intended to enrich the Japanese.

[14] Lee said he first thought of creating the film after visiting one of the original offices of the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) in Shanghai while on a family vacation in winter of 2012.

Knowing the history of Kim and the KPG, he wanted to share it with others so they could be similarly moved by visiting historic sites like that.