The Tale of Shim Chong (film)
The Tale of Shim Chong | |
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Directed by | Bavaria Film Studios |
Release date |
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Country | North Korea |
Language | Korean |
The Tale of Shim Chong | |
Chosŏn'gŭl | 심청전 |
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Hancha | |
Revised Romanization | Shim Cheong Jeon[1] |
McCune–Reischauer | Shim ch'ŏng chŏn |
The Tale of Shim Chong (Korean: 심청전; MR: Shim ch'ŏng chŏn) is a 1985 North Korean musical film directed by Shin Sang-ok.
It is based on the traditional
The Tale of Shim Chong was made when Shin and his wife
The Tale of Shim Chong has been likened with the work of Busby Berkeley.
Plot
Shim Chong is the daughter of a poor blind farmer whose wife has died. Her father visits a temple one day and is told by a monk that his blindness could be cured in exchange for 300 sacks of rice. The farmer agrees to supply the sacks, but soon realizes that he is not able to.[2]
Meanwhile, a group of sailors lament that they have angered the
Shim Chong is taken to the sea in the sailors' ship and thrown overboard. The seas immediately calm. Shim Chong sinks to the bottom of the sea and meets the God of the Sea. The god has been waiting for her to arrive in his realm and praises her for her filial piety. In the underwater world, Shim Chong also meets her deceased mother.[3]
Shim Chong leaves the world of the God of the Sea by floating to the surface inside a giant orchid. A group of fishermen discover the orchid and take it to the king who rules the land. Shim Chong emerges from the orchid and the king falls in love with her. Shim Chong, however, can only think about her father who has gone missing. It turns out he had found a new woman, but the woman cheats her and takes all of the money that Shim Chong had asked from the sailors.[4]
The king helps Shim Chong find her father by organizing a feast for all blind people in his kingdom. When Shim Chong recognizes her father at the feast, he miraculously regains his eyesight.[4]
Cast
Choi Eun-hee acts the part of Shim Chong's mother.[4]
Themes
The theme is of suffering and filial piety.[2]
Production
The Tale of Shim Chong was directed by Shin Sang-ok while he and his wife Choi Eun-hee were abducted to North Korea.[2] It is in the genre of a musical film.[5] The story is based on an ancient Korean folk tale The Tale of Sim Chong about a princess of a realm at the bottom of the sea.[6] Shin had already made a film based in the story in 1972 in South Korea.[2]
The underwater world is populated by dancers in exotic outfits.[3] Although they are masked, their way of dancing gives away the fact that they are Western actors. This otherworldly realm is contrasted with the kingdom on dry land, which is inhabited by people acted by Koreans.[4]
With the permission of
Shin sent the negatives of The Tale of Shim Chong to Kim Guh-wha, a Shin Film representative in Hong Kong to add Chinese subtitles. Kim was the man whom, as Shin later discovered, had handed him over to North Korean agents in Hong Kong in 1978. The negatives went missing at some point. Shin rediscovered the negatives when he visited Kim Jong-il's film archives in Pyongyang.[8]
Critical response
Paul Fischer, the author of A Kim Jong-Il Production likens it with the work of Busby Berkeley, calling it "an extravagant musical ... with fantasy creatures, expensive costumes, and underwater scenes".[5]
See also
- Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
- Cinema of North Korea
- Human sacrifice
- List of North Korean films
- Simcheongga – pansori (traditional musical storytelling) of the same story
References
- ^ Schönherr 2012, p. 204.
- ^ a b c d Schönherr 2012, p. 81.
- ^ a b c d Schönherr 2012, pp. 81–82.
- ^ a b c d e f Schönherr 2012, p. 82.
- ^ a b Fischer 2016, p. 275.
- ^ a b Bärtås & Ekman 2014, p. 161.
- ^ Fischer 2016, p. 279.
- ^ Bärtås & Ekman 2014, p. 225.
Works cited
- Bärtås, Magnus; Ekman, Fredrik (2014). Hirviöidenkin on kuoltava: Ryhmämatka Pohjois-Koreaan [All Monsters Must Die: An Excursion to North Korea] (in Finnish). Translated by Eskelinen, Heikki. Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN 978-951-31-7727-0.
- Fischer, Paul (2016). A Kim Jong-Il Production: Kidnap, Torture, Murder... Making Movies North Korean-Style. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-241-97000-3.
- Schönherr, Johannes (2012). North Korean Cinema: A History. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-9052-3.
External links
- The Tale of Shim Chong at IMDb