The documentary ‘Sugung — The Underwater Palace,’ released on New Year's Day, explores the dongpyeonje style of pansori through the voice of master singer Jung Ei-jin. It offers a raw look at women artists' struggles to survive while preserving a fading tradition. Jung paused her singing for 30 years to care for her family before resuming her career, still carrying past hurts.
For most Koreans, pansori, the traditional narrative singing, is merely a cultural asset to preserve. But for master singer Jung Ei-jin, it is a vanishing art she is determined to sustain. Director Yoo Su-yeon's ‘Sugung — The Underwater Palace’ follows Jung's journey performing the ‘Sugungga’ piece in the dongpyeonje, or eastern style, one of two main pansori traditions alongside seopyeonjae.
The film goes beyond recording ancient music, providing a candid view of women artists' battles for survival and cultural preservation. It first drew attention at the 2023 Jeonju International Film Festival and Seoul International Women’s Film Festival.
Born into a renowned pansori family, Jung halted her singing for 30 years to manage her home and family. Though she later rebuilt a thriving career, she bore scars from an era when women performers faced disrespect, even hiding her talent from neighbors and children, as Yoo notes.
The documentary peaks emotionally as it depicts Jung shuttling between rehearsal spaces and hospitals while gearing up for a grueling performance. There, she voices her fears: “This music might die when I am gone.”
Yoo broadens the story to younger women pansori singers confronting similar hurdles today. To make ends meet, they operate karaoke businesses, teach in schools, or busk on streets. The director conveys a stark message: the genre's decline stems not from performers' lack of talent or effort, but from a system that neglects to support artists amid everyday pressures.
Yoo, who has chronicled women and art in works like ‘Women's Gukgeuk: Enduring on the Edge of Time’—about the waning all-women musical theater form—concludes ‘Sugung’ not with spectacle, but with a subtle prompt to reflect on the time and labor these women invest in safeguarding Korea's traditional sounds.