Im, Kwon-Taek, director. Seopyeonje. Taehung Pictures, 1993.

For this genre, I have chosen to analyze and use a clip from a movie. The movie is a South Korean movie called Seopyeonje (서편제), a film that was released in 1993. It starred actors Oh Jeong-Hae, Kim Myeong-Gon, Kim Kyu-Chul, and Kim Soo-Chul. It tells the story of a family of pansori singers who are trying and struggling to make a living in the modern world as pansori singers. This short clip from the movie depicts two of the characters practicing their pansori performance. For a little background, pansori (판소리) is a traditional Korean form of storytelling. It involves a narration type of singing and drumming, and performances can last anywhere from three to eight hours. Originally, it was a type of performance saved for the lower class, but after a while, the elite started putting on performances too. There are 12 original performance styles, but only five are still performed today (Chunhyangga, Simcheongga, Heungbuga, Sungungga, and Jeokbyeokga). Within pansori, there are five musical style elements. The first, Jo (조), refers to the melodic framework of the performance (i.e. mode, timbre, key, emotions, etc.). The next is Jangdan (장단), which refers to the rhythmic structure. Another one is Buchimsae (붙임새), which refers to how the words and music work with each other. Lastly, there is Je (제), which refers to a school of pansori. This movie was very instrumental in raising the popularity of pansori as an art form, as for many years fewer people were putting on pansori performances.

How does this video of a pansori performance relate to the idea of Han? Each type of pansori tells a different story. Stories range from the relationship between parents and children to the relationship between ruler and subject, but each story shares similar themes. “In each type of pansori, you can see themes of struggle, hardship, and tragedy but with a humorous twist. The main esthetic property of pansori rests in the intersection of the humorous and the tragic. Sometimes, the beauty of both humor and tragedy are not always directly revealed. Rather, they might superficially express humor while the underlying current is that of a tragic beauty. For example, a tragic situation might be expressed in a humorous way. This can be called “tragic humor” or “humorous tragedy” (6, Kim Kee-Hyung, The History of Pansori). Pansori is often satire that pokes fun at both the upper class and the lower class, but mainly at the upper class. Through pansori, people can revel in their shared suffering, poking fun at it and acknowledging that it is there, and the reveling in this shared suffering is an aspect of Han.