Chunhyang (Korean: 춘향뎐; RR: Chunhyangjeon) is a 2000 South Korean period romantic drama film directed by Im Kwon-taek, with a screenplay by Kang Hye-yeon and Kim Myung-gon. Distributed by CJ Entertainment, the film was released on January 29, 2000 in South Korea. Lee Hyo-jeong plays Chunhyang and Cho Seung-woo plays Mongryong.
It is a film adaptation of the pansori Chunhyangga, one of the most notable works in the pansori tradition. To date, there have been more than sixteen works based on this narrative, including three North Korean films. Im Kwon-taek's Chunhyang presents a new interpretation of this oral tradition with a focus towards a more global audience.[2] It is the first Chunhyang adaptation that uses lyrics of pansori as a major part of the screenplay. The film uses the framing device of a present-day pansori narrator who, accompanied by a drummer, sings the story of Chunhyang in front of a responsive audience. The film flashes back and forth between the singer's presentation and scenes of Mongryong.
It was entered into the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.[3] The film is the first Korean film which was presented at the 2000 Telluride Film Festival.[4] At the 2000 Asia Pacific Film Festival, it won a Special Jury Award.[5] It also won an award for Best Narrative at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2000.[6]
The film is told through pansori, a traditional Korean form of storytelling that narrates through song. It is based on Chunhyangga, a traditional Korean folktale, and is set in 18th century Korea.
Lee Mongryong, a governor's son living in Namwon falls in love and marries Chunhyang Sung, the daughter of a courtesan. Their marriage is kept a secret from his father who would disown Lee if he found out that he had married beneath him. The governor is posted to Seoul and so Mongryong has to leave his wife behind, promising to return for her when he passes the official exam.
After Mongryong and his father leaves, the new governor, Byun Hakdo, desires Chunhyang. When she refuses, stating that she is married and will remain faithful, the governor punishes her by flogging. Meanwhile, in Seoul, Lee passes the exam with the top score and becomes an officer. After three years, Mongryong returns to the town on a King's mission. There, he finds that his wife is to be beaten to death on the governor's birthday as a punishment for rejecting him. Mongryong arrests the governor for his corruption and avarice. The two lovers are finally united.[7]
The bed scene between Chunhyang and Mongryong took two days to film because Cho Seung-woo and Hyo-jeong Lee, who had no experience at all, were shy. The two of them didn't know there was a love scene until they started filming, and they were scared, and director Im Kwon-taek gave them homework to come after seeing 'Yellow Hair'.[8]
According to Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times, "Instead the story is freshened through the use of a Korean singing storyteller, a pansori singer, to provide a narration, belting out the song from a stage in front of an audience. The pansori, or song, is performed under a proscenium arch to highlight the ritual elements of folk tales. Even though much of what the pansori tells us unfolds before the cameras at the same moment, the forcefulness of the performance lends another layer of feeling to the picture."[9]