Chunhyangdyun (2000)

Director:

Kwon-taek Im

Writers:

Sang-hyun Cho (story)
Hye-yun Kang (writer)

Release Date:

29 January 2000 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Her spirit became inspiration. Her name became legend.

Plot:

Mongryong marries the beautiful Chunhyang without telling his father, the Governor of Namwon. When his father is transferred to Seoul...

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Hyo-jeong Lee	...	Chunhyang Sung
Seung-woo Cho	...	Mongryong Lee
Sung-nyu Kim	...	Wolmae
Hak-young Kim	...	Pangja
Jung-hun Lee	...	Gov. Byun Hakdo
Ji-youn Choi	...	Gov. Lee
Hae-eun Lee	...	Hyangdan (as Hae-Eun Lee)
Kyung-yeun Hong	...	Kisaeng Leader
Sang-hyun Cho	...	Pansori Singer
Myung-hwan Kim	...	Pansori Drummer
Hae-ryong Lee	...	Lord of Soonchun
Jun-hwam Gok	...	Lord of Okgwa
Keun-mo Yoon	...	Lord of Goksung
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Taell Bae
Bong Chotae
Tae-won Gan
Duk-Seoung Ha
Oh Jin	...	Representative of parliamentary Jun
Suk-koo Lee
Kyoung-jin Moon
Jae-hyung Park
Young-tak Song
Chongll Yoon	...	Old farmer

Also Known As:

Chunhyang (USA) (DVD box title)
Chunhyangdyeon (South Korea) (alternative transliteration)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:PG-12 | Australia:R | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:13 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R

Company:

CJ Entertainment

Trivia:

A "pansori" (on which this movie is based) was a four to six-hour long musical poem performed by a singer and a drummer.

Quotes:

Mongyong Lee: "Like the sun and the moon, my love will never change."

Movie Connections:

Version of Seong Chunhyang (1987)

Very beautiful and worth seeing, but I wouldn't want to see a steady diet of films in this style

This Korean film is told through both pansori and live-action. Pansori is a style of Korean singing/drama that consists of a singer and a drummer and very, very long epic stories are sung dramatically. Seeing the robe-clad singer gesticulate and dance about with his fan was pretty interesting and a nice lesson in Korean culture. Plus, once I got used to the style, it was interesting as he narrated large portions of the live-action story and it reminded me quite a bit of Chinese opera. However, and I know this will make me sound rather shallow to some, but after a while the singing wore me down and I really don't look forward to seeing many more films in this style. Maybe this is the Asian equivalent of sitting through one of Wagner's operas (another endurance test for the audience). In both cases, the performances may be four or more hours long!

The story itself is an 18 century legend about two young lovers, the tragedy that befalls one of them and the very uplifting and satisfying conclusion. The son of a governor falls in love with a concubine's daughter. Despite being from totally different social classes, they secretly marry. The young man wants to tell his parents, but needs to wait until he takes his civil service test, as he wants to make a name for himself before publicly acknowledging the marriage. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes when a new governor is appointed. He's exceptionally cruel and unyielding. Exactly what happens next is something you'll have to see for yourself, but I can assure you it is very exciting to watch and worth the wait--as the film improves the further along it goes.

Beautiful cinematography, this is a lovely little legend come to the screen. It's well worth a look, but I strongly doubt that many Westerners out there will quickly embraced this very unusual film. It takes a bit to get used to the style, but it's well worth it.