DURESORI: The Voice of East was directed by Cho Jung-Rae and is based on the true story of the student chorus in the National High School of Traditional Arts. The movie is known for casting the actual students who were enrolled in that very high school. The film was widely acclaimed, winning the prestigious award in the Seoul International Youth Film Festival (SIYFF) and receiving an invitation to the International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema.

The plot of the movie is rather concise. Seul-ki and Areum are best friends who study traditional music in high school. Yet, they are both under great pressure as Seul-ki endeavors to meet the high expectations of her grandmother, who is a famous Pansori singer, and Areum tries to get admitted to the national college due to poor living conditions. What’s more, when students including Seul-ki and Areum join a student chorus, they clash with the teachers who care more about school grades than their dreams.

One of the notable features of the movie is the movement of the photographic equipment. Instead

of furnishing with special camera effects, it only uses hand-held cameras, and the screen continuously

wavers rather than presenting a stable perspective. This provides a more genuine representation of the reality as the slight fluctuation of the angle gives a documentary effect and makes the audience feel as if they are standing next to the actors, helping the audience to easily sympathize with the stories of each character.

Nevertheless, the most important characteristic of the film is the usage of the songs. The important factor is that unlike most musical films that focus solely on shooting the faces of the actors singing, this movie interweaves and overlaps the scenes of the chorus singing and of the students in their daily lives. For instance, during the chorus performance, the camera focuses on Areum singing amongst her friends. Then, the scene promptly changes and passes on to Areum smiling while she practices gukak, Korean classical music, with her private tutor.

While Areum laughs for the first time when learning gukak, the choral song is softly played in the background, and the Nongeum, the distinguished Korean ornament, is heard at the end. This unique vibration of gukak carries a sense of vitality, like the trembling flow of energy when plucking a tight chord on a string instrument, and it overlaps with Areum recovering her enthusiasm toward her major through singing with the choir members.

Here, by masterfully weaving the scenes together, the movie cogently succeeds in displaying how the music transforms one’s life. Just as how the lyrics sung by the choir members intermingle into an ideal harmony, the film suggests that through the songs, the lives of the people including Areum, find balance amongst the stressful, perplexing days as high school students, afraid of their obscure future.

This enchanting dynamism of music ultimately culminates in the most memorable scene of the film. When Seul-ki and Areum frequently miss choir practices due to extreme stress over preparing for the college entrance examination, the students find the two, and sing Arirang, a Korean folk song, in front of them. As the sweet melancholy melody disseminates into the air like a moist mist of a savory perfume, the tense shoulders of Seul-ki and Areum both loosen, and they run to nestle into their friends.

Music cannot magically solve their concerns. Indeed, Seul-ki and Areum will still undergo hardship throughout their lives. Nevertheless, just as how children seek absolute gratification in their mothers’ arms, music also has the power to bind people together and to embrace their sorrow without directly pinpointing their problems. For a brief period of time, a song creates a space of total composure that prevents people’s secular burden from encroaching upon their minds. Just as how Seul-ki and Areum found their way back to the choir, the music anoints people with its tender flow of harmony, giving strength to move on.

 

Thus, the movie exquisitely presents the strength of music through camera techniques and its enthralling music. In particular, familiar Arirang with modernized variations would grant a novel impression to Koreans since the melody itself is a national lullaby, pulling them away from real life concerns and quenching them with sentimental moments of nostalgia. Although some people might suggest that the movie is too unrefined due to unprofessional actors with mumbled dialogues, the remarkable demonstration of the theme concerning the potency of music enables the audiences to overlook these superfluous flaws.

The modern world of the 21st century is one of fragmented impressions of loneliness, as people wage a reclusive war to survive social competitions for high levels of education or better vocations. To those who are exasperated by the never-ending struggles, who desperately wish for a brief exit from their laborious life, the traditional music of DURESORI: The Voice of East will be a balm that soothes the tattered hearts of modern people.