User:Benlisquare/The Flower Girl

The Flower Girl (Korean: 꽃 파는 처녀; RR: Kkot Pa-neun Cheo-nyeo) is a North Korean revolutionary genre theatrical performance, supposedly written by Kim Il-Sung himself according to official North Korean sources. The performance is considered as one of the "Five Great Revolutionary Operas" (Korean: 5대 혁명가극), a group of classical, revolution-themed opera repertoires well received within North Korea. A film adaption of the opera starring Hong Yong-hee was made in 1972.

Plot
The story is set during the 1930s, and is based along the anti-Japanese guerrilla movement during the period of Japanese occupation in Korea. A poor, rural girl to which the plot is centred on picks flowers up on the mountain every day to sell at the market, to care for her ill mother. Additionally, she also has a blind sister, and her father is deceased. Her mother is in debt to the landlord, and so is bankrupt and unable to purchase food. The landlord's subordinates frequently harass the girl and call for her to work for them, to which her mother refuses. The girl then finds her blind sister attempting to earn money by singing on the street, to her anger.

Eventually, she collects enough money to purchase medicine for her ill mother, but by the time she returns, her mother had already died. The landlord's wife becomes very sick, and suspects that the flower girl's blind sister is possessed by the spirit of her deceased mother, and so arranges for her to be frozen to death in the snow. When the flower girl returns home and asks where her sister had gone, the landlord's subordinates chain her up. At this moment, her brother, who had joined the Revolutionary Army, returns home to visit family when he realises that the flower girl had been locked up, and so organises a group of villagers to overthrow the landlord.

Creation
According to Kim Il-sung's personal memoirs, he personally created the ideas and foundation for the play himself whilst in a Jilin prison during the 1930s. The first section of his 1992 memoir "With the Century" (Chinese: 与世纪同行), entitled "Anti-Japanese Revolution" (Chinese: 抗日革命), notes that :

"There was a time during our country's independence movement where we held on to our vision to build an "ideal village" concept... At the time, we adopted the Korean students in Jilin to teach village people to sing a large variety of revolutionary songs, such as the Red Flag Song and Revolution Song. It was during this time that I was completing the script for The Flower Girl, which I had started whilst I was in Jilin City."

Although it is commonly stated that Kim Il-sung was the sole author of the production, many critics in China cast doubts over the reliability of the claim, and suggest that other North Korean writers may have also had some form of interaction in the opera's production.

According to official North Korean reports, in April 1968, Kim Jong-il suggested that another revolutionary opera, "Sea of Blood", be adapted for a film. Since then, other works have also been adapted into movies "under his guidance", including The Flower Girl. The opera was intended to promote the communist ideology, by incorporating themes such as the class struggle against the bourgeois ; such themes were similarly maintained in the film.

In April 1972, the film adaptation was officially launched.

Reception
The opera was well received in the People's Republic of China when it was introduced there since September 9, 1972, predominantly during the era of Deng Xiaoping's rule, where it was known by the name of The Flower-selling Girl (Chinese: 卖花姑娘; Pinyin: mài huā gū niang). A number of theatrical tours were made in China, which were performed in 1973, 1998, 2002 and 2008. In 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was recieved by Hong Yong-hee during his visit to North Korea.

As of 2008, the opera has been performed over 1,400 times in North Korea and more than 40 other countries, mostly Eastern Bloc states.