Sopyonje 1993 The specifically Korean tradition that is reclaimed in Sopyonje is the type of folk song known as pansori, described as a musical sublimation of South West Koreas collective grief and suffering in other words, a kind of blues The films three central characters are itinerant pansori singers in the 1950s, a time when many aspects of Korean culture came under siege from Japanese and western influences The story unfolds through flashbacks A man named Dong ho is roaming the rural hinterlands, ostensibly to find rare herbal medicines for his employer back in Seoul, but actually in search of Song hwa, the woman he grew up with Orphans, they were both apprenticed to the pansori master Yu bong who pressured them to sacrifice everything for the art Dong ho rebelled and ran away, to become the man he is now Song hwa stayed, lost her sight, and outlived Yu bong Rumor has it that she is still traveling and still singing pansori The tale has one truly shocking twist, but the overall one is plaintive, elegiac and serenely beautiful