Chunhyang

A theatre hall. A single narrator on stage sings an old story to the beat of a drum. The film turns that story into images. Chunhyang is the daughter of a courtesan; Mongryong, the son of a noble family, sees her and the two marry in secret. Mongryong leaves for the capital to sit the state examination. The new governor, Byun Hak-do, wants Chunhyang, she refuses him, and he has her beaten and thrown into a cell. The film does not sit between the lovers; it sits on Chunhyang's continuing to say no. Im Kwon-taek directs the Korean film; a hundred and thirty-six minutes. Its form is pansori, the Korean tradition of one voice and one drum. Across the whole picture that voice both sings the story and comments on it. The tale of Chunhyang has been told in Korea for centuries and filmed many times over.