''Empress Chung'' () is a 2005

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

animated feature film, produced in

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

and directed by

Nelson Shin Shin Neung-kyun (born 1939), also known as Nelson Shin, is an animation director who is the founder and president of Akom Production Co., Ltd., in Seoul, South Korea. He founded Akom in 1985. Career In the 1970s, Shin worked as an animator at th ...

Synopsis

In this adventure, based on a famous Korean folk tale, a daughter sacrifices herself to restore her blind father's eyesight.

Production

As a personal project, Shin spent eight years getting the project off the ground, including three and a half years of pre-production. The film was co-produced in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

by the Chosun April 26th Children Film Studio (also known as SEK), and the score was also recorded in the North by the Pyongyang Film and Broadcasting Orchestra. In a move unusual for the Korean film industry, the character voices were recorded in both the South and the North due to differences in dialect. For the definitive international release version, the South Korean dub is the one used.

Release

On August 12, 2005, ''Empress Chung'' became the first film to have been released simultaneously in both North and South Korea. The film was featured at the 2004

Annecy International Animation Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

, and was also recognized with several awards in Korea. The film grossed on its opening weekend against a budget, continuing a trend of under-performing animated features made for the Korean market.

Disappearance

Since the initial release, aside from few screenings across Europe, the film did not get an international theatrical release or home media release, and is considered lost. Nowadays, the only things related to the film that are online is the trailer, sound test animation, some screenshots and a collection of children's books. There has also been evidence suggesting despite not being released on DVD internationally or in South Korea, that it was released in North Korea because Johannes Schönherr has mentioned ''Empress Chung'' when talking about his latest North Korean DVD acquiring, however without more evidence it can neither be confirmed or disconfirmed whether North Korean DVD release is real.

References

External links