Korea in which a story is sung by a singer, accompanied by a drummer. Although pansori was designated as a national cultural treasure by the government, it was neglected once the country was subjected to American culture.6 The film, which portrayed a declining or ‘derelict’ traditional folk music genre, and was largely shot in a beautiful rural landscape, revived nostalgia for and public interest in ‘our culture’; the family in the film, on the verge of starvation, symbolized the fate of Korean cinema embattled by Hollywood. Sopyonje was released when people were beginning to pay attention to leisure, culture and ‘self’ – aspects they had gone without during the decades of Korean industrialization.