12/31/2022 0 Comments Film korea a tale of legendary libido![]() ![]() Little wonder that, despite being one of just twelve pansori works created in the 18th century, it’s almost never performed anymore: like with Boccacio’s Decameron, ribald humor has gone somewhat out of style in our era. ![]() (Unfortunately, as far as I know, nobody’s thought to make a movie out that grisly/sexy denoument, though I think it’s prime Netflix material!) Not that they get to enjoy much wedded bliss: Byeon is lazy and shifty, and a misdeed against a neighboring village’s jangseung-a guardian totem pole supposed to protect the village from evil spirits-ultimately leads to his death halfway through the tale: the rest concerns the grisly comedy of Ongnyeo screwing a whole series of her later suitors to death and then having to get rid of the bodies. Well, he’s not quite for nothing: Byeon’s wife Ongnyeo is basically Korea’s Wife of Bath (from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales), right down her nasty habit of screwing her husbands to death, and her sexual curse was such that no man could keep up with her until she met Byeon. The character Byeon Gang-soe is often summarized as a kind of “Korean Casanova” because both figures are famous for the same thing-the “legendary libido” alluded to in the title of this film-but beyond that one trait, the two have very little in common: while Casanova was a priest, a man of letters, a spy, and a con man, Byeon was a worthless good-for-nothing bum. ![]() Garoojigi: A Tale of Legendary Libido (2008), Directed by Sin Han-sol. ![]()
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