The Tale of Shim Chong (1985)

Original title

심청전

Directed by

Shin Sang-ok

Genre

musical film

Country

North Korea

Runtime

1h 40m

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A poor blind farmer's daughter sacrifices herself to the sea god so her father can get rice to pay for his sight. She is saved and lives in a giant orchid, then marries a king who helps her find her father.

melodramaticfantasticalsentimentalmusicalfolklorictragichopefulancient

What happens

The Tale of Shim Chong (Korean: 심청전) is a 1985 North Korean musical film directed by Shin Sang-ok. It is based on the traditional story of the same name. The story centers on Shim Chong, the daughter of a poor blind farmer. The peasant signs a deal with a monk to deliver 300 sacks of rice in return of his sight, but is unable to deliver the goods. Shim Chong agrees to be sacrificed to the God of the Sea on behalf of sailors who wish to appease the deity. She is thrown into the sea and meets the god who praises her for her filial piety. Shim Chong returns to the surface inside a giant orchid that fishermen take to the king of the land. The king falls in love with her and helps her find her desperate father who has gone missing by organizing a feast for all the blind people in the kingdom. The Tale of Shim Chong was made when Shin and his wife Choi Eun-hee, who plays the part of Shim Chong's mother, were abducted by North Korea. The two were allowed to complete the filming of the underwater sequences of the film at the Bavaria Film Studios in Munich, West Germany. The negatives of the film went missing for some time, before Shin re-discovered them in Pyongyang. The Tale of Shim Chong has been likened to the work of Busby Berkeley. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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