Chunhyang

The tale of the loves between Chunhyang and Lee Mong-Ryong is the Korean equivalent of Romeo and Juliet. The version by Im Kwon-Taek, the doyen of Korean cinema who has already directed more than ninety films, is the seventeenth film version of the old story (the first dates from 1923). Im Kwon-Taek decided to make the film after listening to a ‘pansori performance’ by Cho Sang-Hyun of the story: a traditional Korean theatre show in which a singer, accompanied only by drums, imparts an old story to a modern audience. It is this pansori that forms the real script for the film. The form and the structure of the film are entirely outside the Western tradition, but Im managed to make a surprisingly accessible and yet exotic masterpiece. The story is about Mong-Ryong, son of the governor of Namwon, who falls madly in love with Chunhyang, the daughter of a distinguished courtesan. Despite the difference in social status, the love between the two grows every day. When Mong-Ryong is sent to Seoul, he promises Chunhyang that she will become his wife as soon as he has passed his exams to enter court service. Then governor Byun, who has heard about the beauty of Chunhyang, wants her to become his courtesan. Chunhyang refuses and is thrown in jail…