Love, Love, My Love

Chunhyang is the daughter of a kisaeng (Korean geisha),[3] whose father has died. She loses her shoe during the Dano festival. It is found and returned to her by Ri Mong-ryong,[4] a scholar-magistrate and son of an aristocrat.[4][5] Chunhyang, embarrassed and modest, flees after this first encounter. Mong-ryong's valet Pang Ja and Chunhyang's servant Hyang Dan conspire to arrange a meeting between Mong-ryong, Chunhyang and her mother. After this proper introduction, the two fall in love, as do the servants.[4] Mong-ryong's father does not approve of Chunhyang because of her lower social class, but the two get married in secret. Mong-ryong is sent to the capital to be educated as a government official. While he is away, the province where Chunhyang lives in gets a new governor. The governor wants to make Chunhyang his mistress, but when she refuses, he throws her in jail. When Chunhyang continues to oppose the governor, he commands her to be executed. Mong-ryong is sent back to Chunhyang's province to root out corrupt officials. He arrives just in time to save Chunhyang's life. He punishes the governor and publicly declares his love for Chunhyang.[5]

Love, Love, My Love is a lighthearted musical in the genre of romantic melodrama.[6][7] It is based on an ancient Korean folk tale, The Tale of Chunhyang.[8] Shin Sang-ok had already filmed the story in 1961 in South Korea under the title Seong Chun-hyang. The story also had a previous North Korean film adaptation by Yu Won-jun and Yun Ryong-gyu called The Tale of Chunhyang (1980).[9]

Love, Love, My Love, like many other films, was directed by Shin while he and his wife Choi Eun-hee were abducted in North Korea to make films for the regime.[5] Shin started on the work after his previous North Korean film, An Emissary of No Return (1984).[3] Love, Love, My Love was directed by Shin and produced by his North Korean company Shin Films.[10] The script was written by Ri Hyong-su and Hang Tong-ho. The cast includes Jang Song-hui, Ri Hak-chol, Kim Myong-hui, Son Wun-ju, Pang Pok-sung, Choe Chang-su,[10] and Choi Eun-hee.[11] Jang Song-hui, in the role of Chunhyang, has sharp and Western-like features. They were the polar opposite of the preference of Kim Jong-il, who usually chose stars according to his personal liking.[12] Ri Hak-chol plays the part of Mong-ryong.[13] Choi Eun-hee makes an appearance as Chunhyang's mother.[11]

Shin utilized techniques of North Korean mass games to produce large song-and-dance numbers in Love, Love, My Love.[14] Hundreds, or even thousands, of extras were needed.[15] The song that plays with the ending credits became one of the most recognizable songs of the country.[14] Love, Love, My Love was released 1985.[6]

Love, Love, My Love became immensely popular.[16] Many people went to re-watch the film over and over again.[17] Many North Korean defectors have testified to seeing the film seven or eight times, and in one case as much as 20.[14] For the first time ever, unauthorized ticket re-sellers appeared in Pyongyang selling tickets to the film. Paul Fischer, the author of A Kim Jong-Il Production, describes the craze caused by the film:

Students put pictures of the film's leading man up in their rooms – the first time the picture of an ordinary North Korean other than Kim Il-Sung or Kim Jong-Il appeared on residence walls, albeit unframed and on a separate wall, hidden away – and went home to fantasize not about the revolution but about him, the first North Korean leading man to be allowed sex appeal and tenderness.[14]

Love, Love, My Love is noted for its liberal attitude toward sex in a society that remained sexually conservative even after the revolution. This aspect of the film has been interpreted as trying to bring social norms to the level of social reality,[18] although the focus is on interpersonal love.[11] It was the first North Korean film to portray romance and expression of love for anything other than the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. Even the title was the first to include the word love. The film also features the first kiss in North Korean cinema,[7] albeit partially obscured behind an umbrella. The kiss was much more subtle than for instance the French kisses in Shin's 1958 South Korean film A Flower in Hell that were the first kisses in any Korean film. The kiss, however, received a lot of attention from audiences.[19] North Korean defectors have testified to remembering the film for its scandalous scenes in particular,[20] something that they had come to appreciate as a new feature in North Korean cinema brought about by Shin's films: "The most attractive thing for audiences was that [Shin's films] were a bit erotic", one defector said.[12] Love, Love, My Love was chosen as the 12th best North Korean film in a survey of 100 defectors.[20]

Lee Hyangjin, the author of Contemporary Korean Cinema, interprets Love, Love, My Love as a distinctively male outlook on the Tale of Chunhyang. Even the title suggests that Chunhyang's life does not exist without the presence of a man.[21] Another current in the film according to Lee is a conflict resulting from trying to present the story through the lenses of both Confucianism and socialism.[22]

• Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
• Cinema of Korea
• List of North Korean films

• Love, Love, My Love at IMDb