FilmFestivals.com - Cannes 2000

The aesthetic and content of director Yasujiro Ozu's films generally sees him referred to as "the most Japanese of the Japanese." In Korea, that description could be transposed to prolific director. Since he turned to making art films in the 1970s, Im has instilled his movies with a profound understanding of what it is to be Korean something which could see him described as the "most Korean of the Koreans."

Astonishingly, Im is nearing his 100th film. The director began making movies in 1962, working in commercial cinema and churning out genre fare. The experience gained from working in this period of Korean-style "quota quickies" led to a consummate understanding of his craft, and in the 1970s he began to put these skills to more expressive uses. The Genealogy (1978) is considered his first art film, and the film best-known in the West from this early period is 1981's Mandala, which had a distinct buddhist aesthetic, and marked his emergence as an auteur.

Since the 1980s, Im has been South Korea's most important and best-loved director. "I feel very conscious of my Korean-ness, and it has very much been my intention to deal with aspects of Korean tradition and culture," Im says. His choice of subject matter has often directly touched on cultural themes such as modern history (the masterful, expansive Taebaek Mountains, 1994), or folk arts (Sopyonje, 1993, a kind of Korean Farewell My Concubine).

Even within more imaginative works like the esoteric The Misty Village (1982), Im manages to express deep truths about the Korean psyche. Bad boy director Jang Sun-Woo (A Petal) confronts these truths violently and aggressively; like a screen shaman he uses his images to exorcise the ghosts within. But Im has the careful, deliberate style of a master storyteller who carries the burdens of his race deep within his heart.

This year's Chunhyang sees him retelling a classic Korean folk-tale in an epic, big-budget manner. Chunhyang, like Sopyonje, makes use of pansori, a sung folk art usually performed by itinerant artists. The story is told in flashback, using a pansori performance to give shape to the action. This also enables some liberal use of plaintive pansori music throughout. The film opens in a theatre where a packed audience await the pansori singer and drummer. The singer begins his performance and from that moment the theatre audience and the viewers are transported back to the Chosun Dynasty where the legendary story of Chunhyang and her beloved Mongryong unfolds.

"The movie tells the story of a forbidden love between a young nobleman and Chunhyang, the daughter of a kisaeng, a female entertainer something like a geisha," say the film's producers. "It is often compared to the West's "Romeo And Juliet" in terms of both its

content and its status within Korean culture. The story has been filmed over a dozen times, but Im's film has a unique structure. It's also the most accessible version."

Chunhyang's Romeo is Mongryong, the son of the Governor of Namwon county, who is taking a break from his studies to become an administrator-scholar when he catches sight of a woman sitting on a swing in the forest and falls head-long in love with her. The fact that Chunhyang is the daughter of a kisaeng augurs badly for their relationship, but Mongryong courts her anyway, by delicately inscribing a poem on her summer dress. All goes well until Mongryong is called away to the capital to serve the government. He pledges to return, but in his absence a new governor tries to take advantage of Chunhyang and make her his kisaeng. Mongryong is forced to return incognito to rescue Chunhyang, who fears he is dead.

Within this framework, Im has many opportunities to express his understanding of "han", a feeling of pain and nostalgia often seen as a national Korean trait. The story also looks like it will have its fair share of "chongso", something described by critic Im Hyun-Ock as "the deep sentiment of a collective Korean spirit, woven with complex emotions and years of common culture and history". Production-wise, the film which is the first Korean film to compete at Cannes is thought to be the most expensive Korean film ever. Chunhyang uses 8,000 extras and 12,000 costumes. The film stars Cho Seung-Woo and features 20-year-old Lee Hyo-Jung in her screen debut as the eponymous heroine.

Richard James Havis