Sopyonje - Die blinde Sängerin

I truly believe that this is the best film ever made in Korea until this date (1999). But it may be too difficult to grasp the film's true beauty for most Westerners who are foreign to Korean "chang" which is traditional Korean folk singing.

Pansori - the traditional Korean musical storytelling, which is performed by a singer and a drummer, is the key component in this movie. If I were to describe it, I'd compare it heart that fuels this movie and makes it function - it encompasses the Korean culture during the period when Japanese and Western influences are taking over the Korean peninsula.

This movie isn't a musical but music is everywhere around the three main characters and music, or rather - the continuation of this traditional kind of music - is the main motivator for everything. For one, it's the task to save it; for the second, it's the task to please her father; and for the third - it's the task to convince them that Pansori isn't profitable anymore. Each of them had different views on the music and the music filled them up in a different way, creating this unorthodox father-pupil family tandem. Even though their trio broke up and broke them up emotionally, the chain of events concluded with one of the most powerful musical exhibitions in the cinema I've ever seen. The raw emotional display, the sadness mixed with guilt, pity, and remorse, the closure that is both making the audience cry and making the audience feel immense joy - everything that comes into making this movie has an effect that sincerely moves people. At the very least, it moved me more than anything else recently and I couldn't be happier.

Just like its Chinese brother 'Huang tu di' by Chen Kaige is 'Sopyonje' driven forward by its songs, but unlike the former is not the content of the songs most important, the art of the singing is. This art is called pansori, and is a Korean tradition with cousins in China and Japan. In 'Chiwaseon' did I'm Kwon-Taek portray the mad drunken master of a special calligraphy school, here he portrays the mad father that refuses to let go of the art as new times are dawning and has ambitions higher than anyone could accomplish and end up hurting his closest.

I'm Kwon-Taek is a true master at display here. Granted that you are interested in these arts, this movie will hold a strong grip on you from beginning to end by the power of its songs. The lead actress did an amazing job full of emotion through small gestures. Now, please get me one of those scrolls and a record of pansori, please.

The story, not bad in itself, is not the main point. The music is. The main characters - a father and his daughter and son - are all folk music performers, and the musical numbers, dispersed throughout the film, make up an integral part of the film. It is not easily accessible for those used to the ordinary Hollywood stuff, but well worth the time if the musical genre presented - pansori - a form of Korean folk music, and actually the main character of the picture - appeals to you. Those who don't like the music will probably be very bored and should not waste their time on this. I loved it, but I know people who would fall asleep fast if they tried to see this.

Sopyonje brought me to my knees before a tradition that previously was unknown to me - pansori. The power, tenderness, and pain that lies in art, in life, longing, and the music was conveyed in full force and with beauty. I couldn't directly understand the Korean words (subtitled) that were spoken or the songs that were sung, but i could feel and was in awe of the emotions especially in the second half of the movie. I can still hear the melodies, voice, and the drum.