Veteran Korean director Im Kwon-Taek's Chunhyang is split between a cinematic dramatization of a classic folk tale and footage of the folk tale being sung by a pansori artist—a Korean performer who dances and chants in a guttural style similar to that of American blues singers. The pansori's song narrates the film, and he sings so slowly that the story takes about twice as long as necessary. But any impatience with Im's conceit begins to fade about halfway through Chunhyang, as the picture's central romance becomes so affecting that the music provides a meditative respite from the intense drama. Lee Hyo-Jeong stars as the title character, the daughter of a courtesan and a nobleman; Cho Seung-Woo plays the son of the governor of Lee's rural province. As he prepares to take his exams and join the royal government in Seoul, Cho has a fling with Lee which culminates in a secret marriage. Then his family leaves without her, and while the new governor demands that the courtesan's daughter behave as a courtesan, Lee refuses his sexual advances, explaining that, as a married woman, she cannot "serve two kings." Chunhyang isn't exactly packed with surprises. It has the look and rhythm of a fairy story—with a fairy story's emphasis on abandonment and the rewards of faith—but it's grounded in the realities of violence and erotic discovery, which means that even as the plot follows a predictable path, the sentiment it stirs feels fresh. Cho's exams relate to his ability to write, and to imbue calligraphic characters with the innate beauty of the objects they describe, and Im's film is similarly concerned with drawing the familiar with aesthetic flourish. As Chunhyang's spell is cast, Im cuts to long stretches of the pansori singing to an increasingly ecstatic crowd, and rather than seeming syrupy, his voice resonates with significance.