“Sound of One” – South/North Joint AD

While watching Shinhwa’s solemn concert in North Korea I remembered an advertisement from Samsung Anycall (mobile phone brand line) CF that featured the very famous singer Hyoree Lee and North Korea’s famous dancer MyungAe Cho. Here is just a little background on how this was filmed. It was filmed at Shanghai – for obvious reasons - in April, 2005 and it was the most famous TV ad of the year. Samsung smartly produced “Sound of One I” and “Sound of One II” which aired from June 11 starting with “Sound of One – Hyoree”, “Sound of One – MyungAe” then the version “Sound of One II – We Meet”. Then later in July, “Sound of One II – Present”
There is also the full version which runs about 1 min. and 30 sec. that was only available through the website - anycall.com - “Sound of One II – FULL VERSION”)

The basic story line of this ad is as follows. In a “North-South Joint Concert” the two people walk pass with a crowd of reporters around them as they are the most famous singer/dancer representing each country; however they do not have any physical contact, they just walk pass each other. Then MyungAe finds this Satelite DMB phone in her waiting room and she does not know who gave it to her. Anyhow, they have a joint concert where MyungAe performs the traditional dances and Hyoree does her thing – later during the joint press conference they got to see each other and the first thing they say is, (Hyoree asks) “How old are you?” and MyungAe responds, “born in 83’” and immediately Hyoree goes on to say, “oh, then I’m unni (older sister)”
Then they spend a day together and they exchange gifts and surrounded by each country’s protection they leave the concert hall after making the promise “we will meet again”.

Behind the story of the making of the film is that prior to the shooting, which took place in Shanghai in April 2005, the project nearly fell apart due to North Korea’s view that since the South Korean Hyoree is a big star/actress but MyungAe is more of a traditional “art performer/dancer” that somehow South Korea tried to pick someone who will shadow his or her North Korean counterparts. Despite the 2-3 days required for the filming, except for the time when they were acting, it was strictly prohibited for Hyoree or any other staff member to talk to the North Korean, MyungAe Cho.

I actually recommend to anyone who has a spare 3-4 minutes to watch it. The bgm is rather emotional and how they depicted the two, like we discussed in our class, the cultural difference – one wearing a traditional hanbok and other wearing a tank top and jewelry just shows the difference between the two. Also it is interesting how they used an English song in I but in II they used the Korean song that is known as the “Reunification Song” in Korea, “One Day” that repeatedly says that “One day we will meet again, though no one knows how it will, but we will meet again”

Here is also the link to the Making Film I-view from Hyoree, Making Film II-view from MyungAe for those who might be interested