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A Major Disappointment

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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.

After China and Vietnam, it is now Korea's turn to export its film industry globally. Chunhyang is a refreshing poetic film, with fantastic scenery. Im Kwon-taek, Korea's leading director, conveys a message of love and hope by adapting a popular pansori to the screen. The pansori is performed by Cho Sang-hyun and Kim Myung-hwan: the voice and drum blend into the beautiful scenery.At first, the uninitiated (e.g. myself) may be shocked by the continuous singing and beats; some may even be put off by it. However, once you get used to this most peculiar type of performance, you can start concentrating on the film itself. The film itself is more of a complement to the pansori. By diverging at times from the lyrics, the scenes add a further dimension to the story by providing the environment in which the story takes place. The direction is fantastic, the scenery even more. Every frame could be a masterpiece of photography. The plot delves into the traditional issues of love, faithfulness, hatred, desire, etc... without becoming too stereotypical.See it to discover Korean art and music. See it with an open mind, as a cultural event. The rhythm and singing may put you off at first, but it is the combination of the pictures and the poetic singing that makes the beauty of this beautiful film.

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.

This is not just a movie, in the way that Americans, like myself, usually conceptualize contemporary film. Perhaps, it might be interesting, as a learning experience, to view "Chunghyang" with "Gladiator" to understand that these are two distinct art forms, devised by two distinct cultural traditions to tell important stories. I was thrilled to find this film so 'other', so un-American, so un-MTV. A Korean storytelling/operatic tradition is fused with beautiful filming. Dialogue, as the actors play out the story, is interlaced very comfortably with a storyteller's narrative in a sutra-chanting, poetic style, accompanied by one drummer. The storyteller's voice is a remarkable asset of the film. It has to be experienced to understand its power. I thought the film used very sophisticated editing to blend the highly operatic story line with the teller's narrative on stage and with a wonderful middle-Korean, as in middle-American, audience. This omniscient viewing perspective, affording views of several different levels of concurrent existence, was really wonderful. Then, I remembered in the middle of the film that I was reading subtitles without a trace of annoyance or distraction from the visuals. Very nicely done all around. I felt enriched, educated and entertained.