Chunhyang

Starring:Hyo-jeong Lee, Seung-woo Cho, Sung-nyu Kim, Hak-young Kim, Jung-hun Lee, Ji-youn Choi, Hae-eun Lee, Kyung-yeun Hong, Sang-hyun Cho, Myung-hwan Kim, Hae-ryong Lee, Jun-hwam Gok, Keun-mo Yoon, Tae-won Gan, Taell Bae, Duk-Seoung Ha, Oh Jin, Suk-koo Lee, Bong Chotae, Kyoung-jin Moon
Director: Kwon-taek Im
Studio: New Yorker Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Soundtrack intolerable
That was a beautiful experience
Her Naked Ankles
Loved the film, but couldn't embrace having to sit through the mourning narrator of the film
Non-original

Chunhyang
Starring: Hyo-jeong Lee , Seung-woo Cho , Sung-nyu Kim , Jung-hun Lee , and Hak-young Kim
Director: Kwon-taek Im
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Period Piece | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

Chihwaseon (Painted Fire)
The Way Home
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Ditto
Oasis

ASIN: B00005NX23
Release Date: 2001-10-09

Customer Reviews:

Soundtrack intolerable.......2007-04-23

I found the singing in the soundtrack so utterly intolerable that I had to quit watching this after about 20% of the video. The movie seemed like it would have been nice otherwise (about a 4). The sound of the singing was very grating & harsh to my ears; since it was almost continous it made watching the video impossible. It also seemed to add little to the film in terms of content. The photography & art direction were exquisite.

That was a beautiful experience.......2007-04-11

I know that the majority of Americans are unfamiliar with the Korean art form of Pansori. It is similar to Peking opera, except the voices are lower. And if that doesn't help, Peking opera sounds like a multitude of dying cats. But seriously, Pansori sounds strange simply because it is something new. Pansori is similar to the oral tradition used to pass along the Bible or stories like The Iliad. Only this time, it is in Korean. Chunhyang is an old Korean folk tale, and this movie tries to tell the story in both a Pansori style (with a storyteller 'singing' and slightly dancing to a drum) and one of traditional cinema.

This film is really nice to watch. This duality is what ultimately makes Chunhyang not realize its potential. Listening to a story or reading a book is much different than watching one. A storyteller uses painstaking detail in describing events, so that the listener can construct an image in his/her mind. Revered director Kwon-taek Im (Taebak Mountains) uses Sang-hyun Cho (who wrote the movie with Hye-yun Kang and Myong-gon Kim), the foremost proponent of Pansori to narrate Chunhyang. The story switches between him on stage, seemingly yelling before an audience, and the actual story. Sometimes, his words frame sequences and actors speak in unison with him. The problem is that he minutely describes what is on the screen, and Im follows his words exactly. It works if people are watching him perform in a theater, but becomes distracting when watching a movie. When Cho says somebody walks quickly, the person walks quickly. When Cho says somebody throws a rock, the person throws a rock. Usually, narration in movies serves to impart something unknown instead of simply repeating what is on screen.

As a folk tale, Chunhyang echoes universal themes of love and fidelity in a simplistic manner. As a movie, it leaves some questions unanswered. Sure, Mongyong cannot see Chunhyang, but no letter or any sort of communication for three years? He supposedly loves her deeply, but then wouldn't he make some effort to contact his wife? Im does a great job with how the movie looks (Chunhyang was the most expensive movie ever in Korea, but still cheap by American standards) but the actors are not that great. Lee does almost nothing but giggle and bow her head demurely for most of the movie. And of course, there is the constant switching between Cho and the movie. Chunhyang would be better if Im chose one method and stuck to it, whether it be a movie of Cho delivering the story Pansori style, or the story itself.

Her Naked Ankles.......2006-10-21

In one of his essays The German philosopher/critic Walter Benjamin compared film with theater stating that the lens of the camera replaces the audience as the spectator, but because the camera is emotionless the actor is unable to feed off the audience's reaction. However, in some films theatrical aspects are not only used, but become part of the film itself. For anyone who has watched Ichikawa Kon's An Actor's Revenge or Shinoda Masahiro's Double suicide this is quite evident. While not taking theater into play, Im Kwon-taek's extraordinarily popular film Chunhyang incorporates the traditional storytelling elements of the pansori, a singer and a drummer, into play. Instead of just opening the film, the viewer is treated to listening to the pansori's storytelling throughout the entire film even having his voice overdubbed over the actors and actresses. While this aspect of the film might be a bit distracting at first, especially when the film's action is cut between the stage and the visualized world of Chunhyang, it eventually sinks in and one can enjoy being told a story while seeing it acted out by actors and actresses instead of just the realm inside one's head.

Chunhyang tells the story of the lovers Lee Mongryong and Sung Chunhyang, the former the sun of the governor of Namson and the latter the daughter of a courtesan. A budding scholar who is preparing for the exams that would open to him the world of officialdom, Mongryong one day becomes bored with his hours of constant study and asks his servant Pangja to show him some areas of local interest. At one spot he notices a beautiful young girl swinging high in a swing and he falls in love at first sight. He orders Pangja to fetch the girl for him, but the servant is reluctant because Chunhyang has a reputation of turning down every man who has shown interest in her. However, Pangja does go speak to her, but instead of returning with the girl he returns with a message that Mongryong interprets as that Chunhyang wants him to come visit her at her home. On the night he visits Chunhyang, the girl eventually agrees to marry him on the promise that he would not abandon her because of their differences in social status. He agrees to do so and so they marry and they seem quite blissful at first until Mongryong's father receives a promotion which requires him to return to Seoul. Because Mongryong has to return to Seoul with his father and because he cannot take Chunhyang with him, because being married to such a lowly girl would destroy his chances of taking the exams, the young couple must part, but Mongryong promises to return for Chunhyang after he finishes the exams. However, during the time that Mongryong is away, a new, corrupt governor takes over the old governor's position and he seems to have an interest in our heroine.

Directed by the man who is considered by many to be the father of Modern South Korean Cinema and the director of nearly one hundred films, Chunhyang might not at first seem no more than a simple love story, but with its elements of traditional storytelling, its intermingling of history, romance, and melodrama, it does stand out as a great film within the ever growing number of spectacular South Korean films.

Loved the film, but couldn't embrace having to sit through the mourning narrator of the film.......2006-09-10

The story was beautiful. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the story and the beauty of its surroundings.

But, I can't sit through this again. The singing narrator was so irratating! The narrating part should have been editted out and maybe re-done with a simple english narration (for the DVD to be released in america, anyway).

But anyway, let's look at the message behind this film:

Marriage is God's law. A woman reduced to the humiliated role of a courtesan (right from birth), is the sick decision of insecure men who've managed to achieve the seat of power over the people. No man should ever think that he's above God's laws. Especially a man in a leadership role.

If a governor, or any man given the distinguished role of leading the people, should decide that a woman is a courtesan first, then a married woman second, should not even be in that seat of power. He should be executed before the people he terrifies. Or at least, be abruptly removed from office, publicly disgraced before the media.

Chunhyang did the right thing to resist Governor Byun, and the Governor should have had his own constituants arrest him for his selfish ungodly-worthy intentions.

But, apart from the narrator, everything else about this film is what we all truly love about an asian love tragedy. I'll give this film a "thumbs out". But not entirely, a "thumbs up", nor a "thumbs down".

Definately worth renting once, but I couldn't sit through this again.

Non-original.......2006-06-18

This is a good film but completely non-original. It's basically a Korean version of Homer's "The Odyssey." Husband leaves. Wife gets harrassed and afflicted. Husband returns to take revenge.

Average customer rating:

Soundtrack intolerable
That was a beautiful experience
Her Naked Ankles
Loved the film, but couldn't embrace having to sit through the mourning narrator of the film
Non-original

Chunhyang [Region 2]
Starring: Hyo-jeong Lee , Seung-woo Cho , Sung-nyu Kim , Jung-hun Lee , and Hak-young Kim
Director: Kwon-taek Im
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Chihwaseon (Painted Fire)
The Way Home
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Ditto
Oasis

ASIN: B00005K3EV

Customer Reviews:

Soundtrack intolerable.......2007-04-23

That was a beautiful experience.......2007-04-11

Her Naked Ankles.......2006-10-21

Loved the film, but couldn't embrace having to sit through the mourning narrator of the film.......2006-09-10

Non-original.......2006-06-18

This is a good film but completely non-original. It's basically a Korean version of Homer's "The Odyssey." Husband leaves. Wife gets harrassed and afflicted. Husband returns to take revenge.

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