The film uses the framing device of a present-day pansori narrator who, accompanied by a drummer, sings the story of Chunhyang in front of a responsive audience.

Lee Mongryong, a governor's son living in Namwon falls in love and marries Chunhyang Sung, the daughter of a courtesan.

[7] The bed scene between Chunhyang and Mongryong took two days to film because Cho Seung-woo and Hyo-jeong Lee, who had no experience at all, were shy.

The two of them didn't know there was a love scene until they started filming, and they were scared, and director Im Kwon-taek gave them homework to come after seeing 'Yellow Hair'.

[8] According to Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times, "Instead the story is freshened through the use of a Korean singing storyteller, a pansori singer, to provide a narration, belting out the song from a stage in front of an audience.

Even though much of what the pansori tells us unfolds before the cameras at the same moment, the forcefulness of the performance lends another layer of feeling to the picture.