Isang Yun Archive

Isang Yun – In Between North and South Korea (2015)

by Audiophile Audition | Dec 25, 2015 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Isang Yun – In Between North and South Korea (2015)   Documentary by Maria Stodtmeier Studio: Accentus ACC 20208 (9/25/15) [Distr. by Naxos] Video: 16:9  color Audio: DD Surround, DTS 5.1 Language: German Subtitles: English, Korean, Chinese, French All regions Length: 60:00 Rating: *** An interesting look at a story that few know. There are three different and, yet, related reasons to explore this documentary; each having its own appeal, in my opinion. First, the work of film maker Maria Stodtmeier is quite good and holds your attention. She first became a name in the documentary genre with another music related film, El Sistema, in which she showed us the story of the Venezuelan music program that gave us Gustavo Dudamel, among others. She can tell a fairly obscure story and give us a real sense of an inside view. Second, composer Isang Yun was an unknown to me and, I suspect, to many others as well. He was perhaps South Korea’s best-known classical composer whose music was banned in his own country for nearly forty years under the pretense that he was a spy; someone who was allowed to travel back and forth between North and South Korea and […]