Product Details

• Actors: Hyo-jeong Lee, Seung-woo Cho, Sung-nyu Kim, Hak-young Kim, Jung-hun Lee
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Korean
• Subtitles: English
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: October 9, 2001
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005O5K6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,574 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Imagine a cross between a Homeric rhapsode, chanting one of the epics in front of a roaring fire, and the blues singer Muddy Waters. That's roughly the sound produced by the great Korean entertainer Cho Sang Hyun. As the film opens, he sits onstage before a contemporary audience and sings of an eighteenth-century Korean Romeo and Juliet. Then we see the tale: in Namwon Province, the governor's son-fifteen-year-old Mongryong (Cho Seung Woo), who has a man's voice and a man's determination-falls in love with, pursues, and immediately marries Chunhyang (Lee Hyo Jung), the beautiful daughter of a courtesan. The scenes of the slender teen-agers courting and making love have a delicate erotic strength-a mixture of shyness and lust-that is nearly unimaginable in a modern Western setting. When Mongryong goes away to Seoul to study, his bride falls into the hands of the evil new provincial governor, who wants to turn her into a courtesan. Throughout, the story is sung to us-it's a lyrical epic-so we accept the absence of psychological realism and the abrupt plot turns. Directed by Im Kwon Taek, who has made more than ninety films. In Korean. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pansori & beauty, May 31, 2005

By 

Chick (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chunhyang (DVD)

This is one of the most beautiful and delectably edited movies I've ever seen. The actors know their roles wholeheartedly. My guess they are classically-trained theatre actors. Chunhyang is one of Korea's 5 stories told in the oral tradition, and was originally for adults. Pansori, if you've ever taken a class or tried it, is very difficult. Requires power from the diaphragm and vocal range. Once, there were 7 of us in a class, and all together, the power of our voices could not top the sole instructor. Im Kwon-taek was smart to incorporate the pansori. For those of you who dont know, there is no Chunhyang the tale without pansori, so it's absolutely necessary to this movie. "Chunhyang-ga" is by balladeer Jo Sang-Hyeon, also known as National Intangible Asset #5.

My dvd said it's Japanese. Someone should be fired for not fact-checking. Also, it's nothing like Raise the Red Lantern or Zhang Yimou. But westerners need to write that to make it relative to their prior movie experience. Chunhyang is a beautiful story of poetry and honor and meditation. It's about love's fidelity.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A woman against the magistrate's authority, September 17, 2005

By 

Kwang Woo Noh "like an empty boat on the sea" (Carbondale, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chunhyang (DVD)

It seems that many people think that a woman is totally suject
under male-dominant society. Under Confucious order, Korea
was male dominant society and woman did not appropriate rights
and opportunity as man. So what? in 17th or 18th century,
European men did not allow or share their rights with European
women, either.

The reason why some feminists enjoy this film is that not only
this story is love story, which may make them feel guilty, but
also it's a story of a woman who was not submissive to local
authority. You can compare this movie with Dagerous Beauty in
which a Venezian courtesan could not challenge the authority.
For me, the great scene is the magistrate's interrogation and
torture to Chunhyang. In this scene, Chunhyang did give up and
said what she thought againt brutal magistrate's demand.

"You are a daughter of a courtesan, so you are a courtesan, too.
You should serve to me. It's a law. If you will not follow the
law, I will punish you. "

"What kind of punishment is given to a man who tries to rape
and urge adultery to a married woman?"

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Legend Retold, July 9, 2003

By 

Spy Groove "Ravenna" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chunhyang [VHS] (VHS Tape)

All I can say this movie is SUPERB!! No wonder it got the Cannes Palm D'Or in 2000. The story is based on Korean famous legend, Chunhyang who stood for her rights to devote all her love only to 1 man despite of the traditional custom that a decendant courtesan (she was the daughter of a retired courtesan) was a coutesan and must be available in serving other men.

I have been told there was a story like this but have never known the real plot. I feel very lucky to be able to watch this artpiece. As a woman, I really admire ChunHyang and her guts in keeping to her promise and to her heart.

The traditional and moral value of this legend is magnified by the cinematography and the way it is told which presents the story as it was sung by a traditional singer (pansori). Highly recommended.