CHUNHYANG

If “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was the opener, this monumental production is the main event, the most expensive Korean film project yet, using more than 8,000 extras, 12,000 costumes, and centuries of folklore, dance and “pansori” song to evoke the operatic epic of star-crossed love in the Chosun Dynasty. It is a story that has been told on Korean screens and stages before, but never on such a scale or with this transcendent vision. Mongryong, son of the governor of Namwon, falls in love with Chunhyang, daughter of a concubine. He secretly marries Chunhyang without telling his father; when the younger man is sent to Seoul for his education as an emissary of the King, Mongryong promises the girl that he will come back for her – someday. When Chunhyang refuses to obey the new governer (by becoming his courtesan) she is persecuted and imprisoned for insubordination. As she languishes under a sentence of death, Mongryong's vow becomes her only hope for deliverance from an implacable enemy. But where is he? Hypnotic chanting and drumming set the tone for a universal yet uniquely Asian saga of immortal love, grievous separation and touching fidelity. (In Korean with English subtitles)