"The Singer” (Korean name "Sorikkun”) directed Cho Jung-rae is the new musical movie showing the genre of pansori from a new perspective.  It premiered on July, 1 2020. 

It is a big screen debut of the professional Korean pansori performer from Namwon, Lee Bong-geun.

Tragic beauty of pansori.

Pansori is a genre of traditional Korean musical storytelling, performed by the singer, sorikkun, and the drummer. Pansori performance requires expressive singing, mastering various voice techniques, memorizing vast lyrics and artistic talent.

Pansori comprises both cultures of the noble class and the culture of common people. Male or female pansori singers improvise to the drummer's rhythm, performing up to eight hours, mixing poetry and academic expressions of the Yangbang, the noble class, and motives from the daily life of ordinary people. UNESCO inscribed pansori on the list of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2003, becoming the first Korean classical genre on the list. For those interested in pansori and Korean folklore, we could recommend watching two older award-winning

Korean movies about pansori and sorikkun - "Seopyeonje” and Chunhyang”. Released in 1993, "Seopyeonje” became the first Korean movie to attract more than 10 million viewers. Cho Jung-rae says that he wrote the script of "The Singer” as his thesis in 1998, being inspired by "Seopyeongje”. The artist seems to be inspired by the blind pansori performer, a character named Songhwa. In this film, the director shows the real pansori singer's pain.

"The Singer.” The voice of the suppressed. 

10th year of rule of King Yeongjo. The pansori singer Hak-gyu lives piecefully with his wife Gan-nan, who is a needlewoman for a noble class, and his daughter Cheongi. At the time, corrupt ruler of that place kidnapped and trafficked innocent people. While the husband was away, the wife and the child were kidnapped. The girl managed to escape thanks to her step-mother, but due to an accident in the woods went blind. The anger, sadness and unhappiness of this tragic situation were expressed through pansori.

On the journey to find his missing wife Gan-nan, sorikkun Hak-gyu was accompanied by his only helper, a drum accompanist Mr.Do (Kim Kang-hyun), their neighbor 'Daebong' (Park Cheol-min), "The Fallen Nobleman” (Kim Dong-wan). They created a singing band, wandering around Chosun Faldo and performing in front of the crowd. 

Unlike Western operas, during sorikkun's performance, there is only one voice representing all the characters. 

One moment you see him as Sim-cheong, and the next one he becomes Sim-bongsa.

He starts performing as Chunhyang, then sings on behalf of Chunhyang's mother, resisting the tyranny of the officials, and then again switches to the crying and grieving main character Chunhyang, waiting for her Lee Do-Ryeong. Screaming and sighing.

Pansori, reverberating in the hearts of people, who gathered at the market, and making them smile, instilled in them a fire of resistance against social contradictions. Violently criticizing self-contradictions of the noble class through cheerful satire, pansori became eyes, ears and voice of the people of the world. Pansori fervently expressed what people wanted to say. 

Gradually, the tragic beauty gained national reputation as having a healing power to those who were hurt. Little by little, it opens the eyes of the people. Finally, people saw the world through the power of songs. Songs of the little music band changed the world step by step. 

"Simcheong-ga”, suggesting the devastated population of Chosun, that good should be encouraged and evil should be punished. 

Along the way Hak-gyu creates one of the most famous of the five surviving pansori tales, "Simcheong-ga.” It is the story about the girl Sim-cheong who sacrificed herself to the king of the underwater to cure her father’s blindness. Sadly, Hak-gyu’s young daughter went blind, but they discovered that she had a beautiful voice and gave an amazing pansori

performance. The topic of sorikkun’s blindness is present in different pansori tales, since it is believed that deprived of the sense of sight, people’s other senses and talents develop sharper.

In the end, Hak-gyu rescued his wife and healed his daughter’s blindness. It is a beautiful movie about the power of one’s will and the power of pansori.

The highlight of the musical movie – music itself.

The movie has a great selection of folk musical pieces arranged a beautiful ways – from traditional pure pansori to a modern take on Korean folk music. Some scenes feel almost like the scenes from famous musicals.

In order to diversify the audienceLee Bong-geun trying out and implementing the "crossover” method in his performance of the Korean traditional music. Various genres, including popular music were intricated into the flow of the traditional music. He also studied jazz scat (random vocal improvisations to jazz music), releasing variations of jazz music mixed with Korean traditional music. The singer said, that appearance on the big screen opens new horizons for Korean traditional music.

This piece of art could be an opportunity to spread the word about Namwon, the hometown of pansori and to take a closer look at pansori, the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.