Chunhyang: Amor Proibido

Introductory lines extracted from its trailer: "It will take you to a place you've never been and wrap you in a life time you've never lived. It is a story of a governor's son favored by birth-right, and a courtesan's daughter, Chunhyang, marked from birth. beautiful, sensual, innocent, brought together by love, bound by loyalty, but torn apart by law. their life became their legacy until their names became legend." A film of epic beauty and eternal devotion of a broken heart that cannot be divided and a heart that cannot be taken where"

There are a number of lines I found particularly worth meditating and deep thoughts. I didn't think this film would be a great film especially judging from its opening introduction where chants with singing were all I heard. Of course then I must remove the mentality of what a movie should be like set by Hollywood. Having done that, Chunhyang as well as the movie, has taught me a great lot of moral values, and wisdom, and not to mention loyalty. The number of people devoted to marriage and love these days are on the declining slope and it is in my opinion that modern thinking is to be blamed. However, these are two very different contexts. Truly, Chunhyang, is a very 2 hour inspiring film, in a different way from Hollywood.

Its musics are as though playing with the strings of my heart. oh my god, so good! Enjoy!

This is a lush and beautiful Korean fairy tale with "Romeo and Juliet" like qualities. As I understand it, it is traditionally told in "Pansori" style with a rhythmic singer/storyteller accompanied by a drummer. The film uses a pansori concert as the framework to tell the tale and interweaves the action with the singer's narration to good effect. The story is classic, star-crossed lovers separated by societies rules. A governor's son falls in love with a concubine's daughter and their love must endure long separation and an evil lord's lust. Classic story and an interesting story-telling method make for a truly entertaining film.

I stumbled into Chunhyang through a teaser on Sundance Channel today. The story is a variation of a timeless theme of forbidden love found and lost. Or is it lost and found?

The presentation includes a staged classical Korean theater performance where a singing storyteller and a drummer (Pansori) act as the narrator. His singing punctuates and accompanies the visual story and dialog.

I was afraid that the acting would be too stylized and therefore distracting, but it was very believable and engaging.

Having recently become interested in Korean history and culture through their pottery, I was familiar with some of the images, values, and traditions, but the beauty of the costumes, architecture, and scenery were strikingly beautiful and compelling.

I'm looking forward to seeing this again. It was so visually rich that I'm certain it will continue to be a source of beauty.

With the Korean story telling tradition performed on stage, it was a interesting and novel way to tell the story. The story was beautiful and the moving. I figure it to be a Korean fairy tale given its happy ending and having a moral to the story.

I didn't find the story telling method completely successful. The music and drumming added tension to the film, but the Pansori seemed to intrude in the film too frequently, describing everything that is going on when it could be done visually, rendering many scenes as some sort of announcement, not letting the ambiance set in. The scene of the whipping seemed to be a little forced, having the camera show us various audience members crying, as if we don't know this is a dramatic situation. It might have worked better if they let the dialogue be spoken by the character Chunghyang instead of the Pansori, since the Pansori does not have much dynamic range in his voicing, being always loud. The character saying it while being whipped gives a different impression than the Pansori screaming it.

But all in all, still a good film.

Cahiers Du Cinema called this epic an "experimental film", and indeed, it is as experimental as Lars von Triers DANCER IN THE DARK by heavily relying on music and songs. On the other hand, the differences are quite obvious. Here the songs come from the off most of the time (until the camera surprisingly moves to the classic singer on a stage) and do something that usually reduces the quality of a movie: they tell you what's going on in the pictures. But those pictures are of such an elegic beauty (with the typical yellow "Im-tone") that you feel a story is told to you by your grandfather and it unfolds perfectly in front of your eyes. I saw the screening during the MIFED 2000 together with only one (!) other guest and am quite astonished that film fans and buyers might overlook this masterpiece about an exclusive one-on-one love that touches our hearts.