Empress Chung: New York Premiere Screening

Details

Category: Gallery

Gallery Talk and Film Screening

with

Heinz Insu Fenkl
Director, Interstitial Studies Institute, SUNY New Paltz

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

It's a classically Korean tale and a small triumph of geopolitics too, brought to New York audiences for the first time by The Korea Society. The animated feature-length film Empress Chung played for one night at The French Institute in Midtown, telling the story of a dutiful Korean daughter who sacrifices herself to the Dragon King in order to redeem her blind father's sight, which starts a magical undersea adventure that ends with her becoming an empress. Already in wide-release throughout Asia, Empress Chung has played in only a handful of American venues. The plot would have seemed familiar to anyone who knows Korean folklore. Less obvious would have been the story behind the production. The film has been hailed as a triumph of geopolitics as well as animation. Directed by iconic Korean American animator Nelson Shin, Empress Chung was the first feature-length joint production employing both South Korean and North Korean artists.

Immediately following the screening, wowed cinema-goers heard a lecture by Heinz Insu Fenkl, director of the Interstitial Studies Institute at SUNY New Paltz. Fenkl's talk, titled "Empress Chung: Korea's Beauty and the Beast," introduced listeners to deep, uniquely Korean values that the film (and folktale) express, and traced the roots of the story through other ancient East Asian traditions. His lecture also illustrated how the traditional folktale had been adapted in this animated version to convey a message about the universal Korean aspiration for national reunification.