Chunhyang: Comment

[Anonymous]

I thought the film was pretty good. Typical boy meets girl, loses girl, etc. Funny that it never really showed much of the Seoul, I wonder why that was. Easy to see the hierarchy that was discussed in Japan. I could have done w/o the 'singing narration' throughout the film.

[Anonymous]

I decided to view the film Chunhyang. At the offset, to be quite frank, I found the singing quite distracting and annoying. I like the idea that the love story was being narrated, but the tone of the singer's voice was at times almost unbearable (blame my Americanized ears).I agree with Virginia, visually, the colors displayed in the setting, clothing, and even make-up were beautiful. It gave me a glance into the beauty of a foreign country. There is one scene were the lovers are riding horse and then end up in a field of red flowers (roses?). The constrast with their white clothing was absolutely beautiful.The characters are not that developed in the beginning, or perhaps I did not take note of those details in the narration, but the plot is the typical boy meets girl, something separates them, etc.There are definitely some high points, the love between two young people as well as low points, the governor's son, Young Lee's departure to study in Seoul, Chunhyang's beating. She was quite brave questioning her punishment and writing "One Love" when told to record her crimes. The audiences reaction to these scenes are appropriate and help to confirm the viewer understanding of the plot. All in all, I would not use this film in my clasroom. The intimate scenes were too much for me to bear, so I could only imagine viewing this film in a room filled with 16 and 17 year old kids. The ending was cute. Lee wreak havoc on the governor's party and has Chunghyang brought to him, only to have her faint upon realizing he has returned and she won't face death.Unfortunately, I will not be using this film in class. As an English teacher, I am limited on time and I have decided to focus on Japan.
edited by kleroy on 8/3/2012

[Anonymous]

This movie is a nice love story of lovers of different social classes. Although made for adults middle school students could learn some appreciation from some parts of the movie. It deals with social class, government, rituals and culture; all of which are relatable to students in their own lives. Like I said in my comment earlier about the movie, the singing/narration was too much for me. If I do show parts of it I will mute it. I think the best part is Chungyang insistance of being loyal even while being beaten. I could has what would they do in that situation. I'd like to see other films that are a little more pleasant to watch. Oh and I just got a notice from my school that we can only show clips of a movie and not the entire film as that should not replace instruction.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with kleroy concerning the film Chungyang. at first I was completely annoyed by the singing in the film, but them I realized that the film was somewhat multi-dimensional in the sense that you have the storyteller, the audience, the characters and me. I was inter-relating/interacting with the emotions of all the different themes within the film. It was great! the love that the two main characters was very emotional, sensual and sensitive... By the end of the film I was crying...routing for the main characters. It was like a tragedy gone good!!! I would suggest this film to anyone who is interested in foreign films. the only part that was difficult for me is that the subtitles transitioned rapidly, not giving me enough time to read and take in the scenery of each clip.

[Anonymous]

This was a wonderful movie. The movie opens with a Chinese song. If and when I show this movie, I thought it would be really cool to have students think of some movies that start out this way and what the purpose of that could be. Students may say that the Chinese folk music sounds similar to Corridos or Negro Spirituals which would be the correlation I want them to make. The song invokes tradition.

In that sense, this is a wonderful movie to show students. It really does a great job in illustrating Chinese culture, values and tradition. It would be a great tool in introducing students to a unit on Asia because of all the above mentioned. As I was watching the movie, I jotted down several examples that illustrated culture, values, norms, traditions, dress, the relationship between males and females, architecture, landscape and hieratical power. With this said, I realized how great of an assignment that would be. Ask students to complete a K-W-L chart about China. Watch the movie and have students go back and fill in more things they learned or observed about China as they watched the movie. This activity could act as the springboard into the unit a teacher is preparing to teach.

[Anonymous]

I know have a new love for Korean films. I think that they are very interesting and intriguing. It is very interesting but they are like soap operas but with a historical and cultural aspect. This can come in very handy when doing the culture unit for my World History class at then end of the year or the 1st semester of my MultiCultural Perspective class. I can see my self using this video, except for the part after Chunhyan and her husband get married and are consuming their love, to show just how society and hierarchy was back then and just how they ran things. The only thing I am not sure about is whether my students would enjoy the singing narration, I know for myself I understood the concept of it but it took me a while to adapt to it, and in all honesty I think that the film would have been great without it, or less of it. This would be the only reason as to why I wouldn’t show it, but overall I think it’d be a great film to show, if time permits; If not at least the part where Chunhyang is being beat for her loyalty to her husband, because it is important to show just how much it was valued on her part, and how later on she gets honored for that.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

The cinematography is quite striking in this film--worth at least an Oscar nomination, IMHO. I've watched foreign films quite a bit over the years, but would like to see more from Korea. (BTW, if you also like foreign films you might want to consider subscribing to Film Movement. They send you a DVD monthly of an award winning foreign film which are from very diverse countries. Subscribe around Xmas time when it's half off!).
I'm no prude, but I do teach tweens and watch them become teens struggling with all kinds of issues in my community, so I am not a fan of the graphic sexuality in Chunhyang. Ideally only adults should see it, but that's not going to happen. The negative outcome for society at large outweighs any benefit. I wish all the budding Hollywoods of the emerging film capitals of the world would have a heart and consider this.

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