2000｜135 MIN | Drama, Epics/Historical

DIRECTOR IM Kwon-taek

CAST CHO Seung-woo, LEE Hyo-jeong

RELEASE DATE January 29, 2000

CONTACT Taehung Pictures

Tel : +82 2 797 5121

Fax : +82 2 797 5125

Seven years after his lyrical pansori drama Seopyeonje, the first film to cross the one million admissions mark in Korea and considered to be among the greatest Korean films of all time, IM Kwon-taek returned to the unique performance style for his adaptation of the classic Korean folktale ‘Chunhyang’. 

Noble-born Mongryong falls in love with Chunhyang, a young woman he sees on a swing one day. He learns that she is the daughter of a kisaeng (a Korean courtesan) and makes his intentions known to her, despite the unthinkable difference in their social ranks. As he tenaciously pursues her, the pair eventually falls in love until the day Mongryong’s father is called to the king’s court, forcing him to leave as well, though he promises to return when he becomes a court official. In his absence a salacious governor installs himself in Chunhyang’s town and he begins to chase her against her wishes. After spurning him she is faced with dire consequences. 

What distinguishes IM’s version of ‘Chunhyang’ from a dozen or so filmed adaptations that preceded it is that he frames the story within a pansori performance on stage as the film begins when a group of unwilling students are dragged to what they expect to be a dull 5-hour recital of the famed fairy tale. In pansori, a tale is chanted by a singer at great length, while a lone drummer sits besides them. A few bars after the singer begins his rendition we switch to a normal filmed version of the tale featuring an early role for Marathon (2005) star CHO Seung-woo, and occasionally return to the stage version, at which point we can see that the students have become enraptured by the performance.

Having already made 90 films in a wide variety of genres, Director IM began to focus on Korea’s specific cultural heritage in the mid-1990s. His films of this period, which were among the few Korean works that found favor overseas at the time, sought to highlight Korea’s unique cultural beauty through art forms such as pansori. Chunhyang was IM’s first film to be invited to compete at the Cannes Film Festival. He would take part in the competition again two years later with Chihwaseon, another period art film, which earned him the Best Director prize. 

Though deeply respectful of its iconic source material and the pansori tradition, in IM’s experienced hands Chunhyang avoids being overly reverential as his take on the story is entertaining throughout as it builds to its cathartic climax.