Cheap Chunhyang (Video) (Hyo-jeong Lee, Seung-woo Cho) (Kwon-taek Im) Price

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Customer Reviews of Chunhyang

Poetry on Film
"Chunhyang" is living art. Narrated in the Korean tradition of Pansori in which a story is told through sung verse, it's the timeless classic tale of two young people who fall in love at first sight, are separated through adversity, and come together again. Chunhyang is the daughter of a courtesan, and in the ancient Korean class system she is therefore considered a courtesan herself, and Mongryong is the son of an upper-class nobleman; they meet, fall in love, and marry secretly. Mongryong's father, however, has plans for his son that don't include marrying a courtesan's daughter, and the couple has to split up while Mongryong prepares for a state examination. Chunhyang spends the three years of their separation fighting off the advances of a venal provincial governor; she's about to die for her resistance when her long-lost husband returns to save her. Virtue has its rewards. The film succeeds on every count. The cinematography is splendid, the two young lead actors, both of them teenagers, are excellent, and the haunting tones of the Pansori singer draw us into the film and make us a part of it. Unlike those reviewers who felt that the singing distracted from the movie, I thought it helped to underscore the ancient tradition of story-telling, a part of so many cultures, in which a tale is narrated through song and verse as well as prose. We not only enjoy "Chunhyang" as a brilliant example of Korean film making, we feel it on a fundamental level as a love story anyone can relate to. It's a great movie that deserves a much wider audience.

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So so DVD, beautiful film
This DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) with Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 (Pro-Logic) soundtrack and defeatable English subtitle. The extras include American theatrical trailer, and trailers for few other foreign films.

While the DVD's color saturation is satisfactory, the detail is lacking and digital artifacts are apparent. It's certainly serviceable, but Il-sung Jung's cinematography deserves better.

As for the film itself, the acting is a bit smug and Pansori narrative-style (a Korean chant) disrupts the flow from time-to-time. However, there is still much to recommend it. The story has "Cinderalla meets Romeo and Juliet" flavor to it, and the film makes a good introduction to *traditional* Korean culture. And of course, Hyo-jeong Lee as Chunhyang is beautiful.

P.S. I am a Korean guy and the film does not reflect modern Korean culture. Yes, South Korea is still (unfortunately) male-dominated, but not to the extent as presented in the film. Be open-minded when watching this film.

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Avoid
If you're looking for a good Asian movie, spare yourself of this one. The story isn't bad, and it's beautiful to look at, but the traditional Korean singing throughout will have you PRAYING FOR DEATH.