Chunhyang is a costume epic and love story that plays like a cross between Cinderella and a rock opera. The film, from Korean director Im Kwon Taek, is a decorative undertaking of such visual splendour that western audiences should be prepared to be dazzled.

Shown last year at the film festivals in Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and New York City, Chunhyang is told in the ancient operatic tradition of pansori, which is just the sort of information film critics always have at their fingertips, particularly when it says so right here in the production notes for the film. As far as we can make out, pansori is a wildly attractive form of narration involving folk song and dance, and the overall impression for the viewer is one of being read to within a living book. With great illustrations.
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