Name: PHAM KHANH HUYEN Student number: 20221891 Submission date: 2022/12/05 SEOPYEONJE - 서편제 The 1990s is regarded as the most impressive period of Korean film industry, especially when it comes to “Seopyeonje”, which is directed by Im Kwon Taek. It was not only deemed a masterpiece, but also was responsible for a new wave of interest in Korean traditional music. Moreover, the first Korean film ever to appeal to over one million people to the theatres, “Seopyeonje” swept the Korean Film Critic’s Awards by winning best film, best director, best actor, best new actress, best cinematography, best Korean feature film and best music. The film is the narrative that follows the father whose name is Yu-bong and his two adopted children, the son Dong-ho and the daughter Song-hwa. The traveling Pansori singer Yu-bong has persuaded his widowed lover to leave her hometown and the shame of her situation behind. With the Dong-ho's mother dying in childbirth, Dong-ho and Song-hwa was left at the mercy of Yu-bong's Pansori obsession. With the styles of Western music slowly gaining the upper hand, and interest in the traditional Korean folk music waning, Yu-bong did everything he can to pass on his knowledge and experiences to his adoptive children and raise as his artistic continuation. His life revolved around the success of his children, it seems to be nourished by his ego. His passion became theirs, thus, they have few choices in the matter. He discovered the Song-hwa's talent for singing and Dong-ho for drumming. Thus, Yu-bong taught his children in order to become the well-known 소리꾼 and 고수. His persuit of perfection sees the way Yu-bong treats his children, and eventually the young adults, in harsh terms. They maintained the Korean musical tradition of Pansori alive by traveling around the country and performing. The film contained one of Korean cinema’s most emblematic scenes as the trio danced and sang down a long road, a scene filled with happiness but in a certain way still gloomy and woeful. The film did a superb job of demonstrating the power of Pansori, as the depth of the characters' sadness is realized by their performances. Yu-bong predominantly used these sparse funds for his drinking, a vice contributing to his fits of angry outbursts about his perceptions of flaws in their performances. After the latest rollicking, the war broke out and it became more complicated for living. The son Dong-ho could not suffer from his father's imposition as well as parallelly the booming of Western cultural music. As a result, he got into a quarrel with Yu-bong and decided to leave the hometown, his dad and his poor sister. We then catch up with the story as he tries to track down his sister years later, piecing together clues on their latest travel track. After Dong-ho's exodus, Song-hwa went on hunger strike, she refused food and drink and just waited for him to return. Consequently, Yu-bong made Song-hwa become blind with the belief that a person can truly learn to sing Pansori only when she has great resentment in life. The first scene of the movie took place in roughly that era. A grown Dong-ho, having abandoned the rigorous austerity of life under Yu-bong in adolescence, turns up in a village to seek Song-Hwa. In a tavern, he could not find his long-lost sister but another Pansori singer, who learned the art from her and filled him in on her story: “After mourning her father’s death for three years, she left. I am worried about her because she’s blind. Some people said that her father made her blind to make her sing better, while others argued he made her blind to prevent her from leaving him. But some individuals disputed that no father in this world would make his daughter blind to keep her by his side. Because he did to inflict great sorrow into her heart so that she could sing well.” Many years later, the calligrapher, who is Yu-bong's old friend, travelled to an inn where Song-hwa is staying. He recognized her singing and was shocked at her blindness. She asked him to draw and expressed that she could see with her heart despite being blind. Dong-ho, having had the calligrapher point him to the inn, also arrived at the inn. He met Song-hwa and requested a song. Song-hwa sang Shimcheongga with Dong-ho accompanying her throughout the entire night. Until Dong-ho left in the early following morning, the innkeeper asked Song-hwa whether Dong-ho had been her brother. Song-hwa nodded and admitted that she had known at once the man was Dong-ho. Song-hwa told the innkeeper that she had stayed for 3 years already and wanted to move on. Reluctantly, the innkeeper joked that he was back to being a widower and asked Song-hwa to give him her address after finding her next destination. At the end of the movie, Song-hwa began her journey through the snow with a young girl held the rope to lead Song-hwa. Kim Myung Gon plays the tortured and ambitious Yu-bong incredibly well. His portrayal is realistic and despite his character being arguably morally repulsive or dark grey at best, he feels like a real person, and his motivations and drives are all too clear. Ethically, it is hard to care for him, yet his performance convinces you otherwise. The daughter as played by Oh Jeong Hae causes heartbreak and is the emotional backbone of the classic. Her passionate performance highlights the tragic nature of the character, and even though her performance is at times overbearing and melodramatic, it fits the overall theme very well. Kim Kyu Chul in turn plays the adoptive son Dong-ho with a similar passion. His opening performance sets the tone of the film nicely, whereas throughout it he is a stabling factor of readable frustration and pain. Although the story itself is actually rather simple, the choice to tell much of it in flashback allows for great immediate contrast between the past and the present, clearly showing a dramatically changing and modernizing Korea, which helps set up the parallel tension in Dongho between connecting to the past his family through Pansori and keeping up with modernity and pointing to a significant element of identity lost in the pursuit of the present. “Seopyeonje” opens up the pansori tradition to a whole new generation. This is perhaps its greatest achievement. It preserves Korean tradition, and its cultural impact is undeniable. The art of Pansori gets highlighted in a way most people probably had no idea was possible, nor were they interested in it. This movie is more than just a commercial for Korean folk music, though. It is true artistic value is in its storytelling, using pansori and film as a vehicle to bring this genuine treat your way. It feels very uncommercialized and is rather unique in its kind, giving anyone a reason to give it a try.
