Chunhyang (2000)

Director:

Kwon-taek Im

Writers:

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

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

Directed by
Kwon-taek Im

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Sang-hyun Cho		story
Hye-yun Kang		writer
Myung-gon Kim		writer

Produced by
Dong-joo Kim	....	executive producer
Tae-won Lee	....	producer
Dong-jun Seok	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Chong-gil Kim

Cinematography by
Il-sung Jung

Film Editing by
Sun-duk Park

Production Design by
Unoc Min		(as Un-ok Min)

Costume Design by
Hyun Sook Bong
Young Hu

Sound Department
Byung-Ha Lee	....	sound recordist

Other crew
Young Kim Jun	....	researcher

Production Companies

• CJ Entertainment
• Mirae Asset Capital
• Saehan Industries
• Taehung Pictures

Distributors

• Cine Qua Non Films
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2001) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Haut et Court (France)
• Imagem Filmes (Brazil) (DVD)
• Imagem Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• Lot 47 Films (USA) (subtitled)
• Mongrel Media (Canada)

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 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:R | 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)

An unusual movie experience

This is a Korean film telling the story of two lovers torn apart by class. The son of a governor and the daughter of a courtesan. It has the air of a fairytale and is a very good film.

It may be difficult for some people to get into the film in the beginning if you are not familiar with pansori. Pansori is a centuries old Korean form of storytelling in which a storyteller sings the story while a drummer drums and makes short vocal sounds or words of encouragement. It is initially jarring for those of us who mostly watch American and European film, but stick with it. I first saw this in a film class and it was among two films that I wrote about for class and liked so much that I purchased on my own once the class ended.

As the film begins the viewer is placed in the position of someone watching a pansori performance. From here the film transitions from the world of Chunhyang to the pansori audience. Part of the enjoyment of the film comes from watching the reactions of the pansori audience to the story. It is akin to being in a movie theater and sharing the same experiences with everyone else watching the film.

Aside from the format, the story itself is enchanting, full of love, loyalty, and courage. The acting is very good and the actors are not bad looking themselves. The pansori performance is a song of the story so it has some poetic qualities that don't necessarily push the story forward, but are enjoyable if you are patient. All in all it is a look into Korean culture and storytelling that not many films from America, Europe, or the rest of the world do for their own cultures. Most films today just stick to the basic narrative design or are pretentious and abstract. This one creates a new experience for anyone who is willing to give it a chance.