Seopyeonje - longing for modernity

It seldom happens to me that a film falls through like Seopyeonje. I consider myself an avid moviegoer and I have watched a wide variety of different films as well as various films very similar to Seopyeonje. Most closely related would be "Farewell My Concubine", directed by Chen Kaige. Farewell My Concubine came out the same year (1993) and is more or less an identical Chinese film to Seopyeonje, but is, in my opinion, in every way a better film. Even though the story of Farewell My Concubine is set in late 19^th to early 20^th century and Seopyeonje is set around the middle of the 20^th century, both stories deal with themes of the old meeting the new and modernity versus tradition discussed through Pansori in the case of Seopyonje and Bejing Opera in the case of Farewell My Concubine. The main problem with this film, in my opinion, is that director Im Kwon-taek thinks that pansori is enough to carry the film on its own and neglects a well-developed story and proper character development.

As a foreigner I do understand that this is a film made for a Korean audience with the knowledge, historical awareness, and the “ears” for pansori. The problem, however, is that if the music isn’t doing it for you then there is not much else to hold on to. I just couldn't find the importance, or the mysticism of the music and as a result pansori and Seopyonje became a nightmare of screaming without any real story that I could hold on to instead. This was an experience quite different from the one I had with Farewell My Concubine. Even though Beijing Opera is quite different, it shares many aspects with pansori. It could also be interpreted as the worst form of screaming if it is dealt with in the wrong way. However, Farewell My Concubine never looses its magic where Seopyonje does. The reason for it is that it manages to explain the importance of the music in a much more coherent way by managing to create a deeply moving and interesting story that was not present in this Seopyonje.

As an example, in Farewell My Concubine the prostitute mother gives up her son to an Opera performance group as a last resort in order to survive. The music is the only rescue for the young kid and he has no alternative but to sacrifice everything for the music. However, in Seopyonje the pansori singing mother dies in childbirth early on and the kids are left with their father who is a pansori master. However, pansori singing is never introduced properly as the only way to survive or the only way of life and therefore it is weird how they all become so determined to live solely based on this music. The same also goes for the father’s deep commitment to pansori, which is never well developed except for the mother’s death. In Farewell My Concubine the male protagonist’s love and hate relationship for the Bejing Opera is well developed over several traumatic incidences from his early life and through the historical context of contemporary China. As a result of this magnificent piece of story writing and character development I shed several tears by the end of Farewell My Concubine, however, in comparison, the characters in Seopyonje are to me very static, shallow and arbitrary and as a result, when the final part of the film came along, the last meeting between the two siblings, I was taken aback by how little I cared.

As a conclusion, yes, the mise-en-scene and the cinematography, with the very beautiful long shots, are well done. Nevertheless it is not enough to make this an outstanding film. You can find better and more interesting shots in Farewell My Concubine and at the same time get a good and moving story. The story of pansori singers is interesting but it is just a shame that the film has not been adapted to the screen in a better way.