On March 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day to recognize the achievements of women and put focus on issues under different annual themes to highlight the importance of gender equality. In 2024, the UN theme was Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress that sought to stress the need for investing in women. 

In Korea’s film industry, it has a chequered history when it comes to investing in female talent. Professionals working in various capacities including directors have often faced an uphill battle. Indeed, it is quite telling that it was only in 2023 that a female filmmaker finally helmed a budget of over 100 billion won with Yim Soon-rye’s The Point Men. Despite a wealth of talented female directors in Korea, blockbusters and the more expensive genre-driven features are invariably directed by men. Furthermore, out of the 183 Korean films released in 2023, only 49 or 22.8% were directed by women. 

Yet, opportunities in education through film schools like KAFA (Korean Academy of Film Arts) have meant that the industry has sought to train and invest in female directors. Festivals including the Jeonju International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival have also programmed films helmed by women with seven out of nine films in the Korean competition in Jeonju in 2022 directed by female filmmakers. Some of the major discoveries at Busan over recent years have been by women (Kim Se-in’s The Apartment with Two Women (2021), Moving On (2019), House of Hummingbird (2018)). 

Looking back at the rise of the industry; from the golden age of the 1950s and 1960s to the contemporary era, female directors have demonstrated remarkable determination and skill in getting films made often telling (though certainly not always) stories that affect and resonate with women. This week, we take a look at some of the important films directed by women beginning with Park Nam-ok’s The Widow before looking at some films from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and concluding with the films of Yim Soon-rye, Korea’s most successful female director. 

The Widow (1955)

Unquestionably historic was The Widow (1955), directed by Park Nam-ok who became Korea’s first female filmmaker. Pictured on set with a baby on her back, unable to get into recording facilities because she was a woman, it optimized the immense struggles women faced in the Korean film industry during the early years of South Korean cinema. 

Although incomplete and the audio is missing for a part of film, it’s also significant for its narrative that focuses on a widow (Lee Min-ja) whose husband was killed in the Korean War. She ends up spending time with two men; one married, the other who saves her daughter from drowning in the ocean. She wrestles juggling her commitments as a mother while following her desires as a widow. 

Not unlike Madame Freedom that was released a year later in 1956, women are sometimes dressed in hanboks adhering to social norms expected of them supporting their husbands as housewives, yet at other times they are fiercely independent, drinking alcohol and dating that could have been interpreted at the time as scandalous. 

Influenced by Western culture, chiefly the United States, Seoul is captured as a bustling city with an abundance of automobiles and energy. Portrayal of women, therefore, comes as tension between tradition and modernity becomes increasingly pronounced with the roles of women evolving as Korea was undergoing rapid modernization. 

The film opened the first Seoul International Women’s Film Festival in 1997 bringing the film into the spotlight. Sadly, it was Park Nam-ok’s first and last film further illustrating the challenges experienced by women seeking to make films as Chungmuro in downtown Seoul was fast becoming the center of the film industry.

A Woman Judge (1962)

Also tackling the issues of widespread gender inequality was Hong Eun-won’s A Woman Judge (1962) that is loosely based on a true story of Korea’s first female judge. Moon Jeong-suk plays the woman who passes the exam to be a judge early on in the film and faces continued prejudice for not conforming to what was expected of her in and outside the household. The film turns into a mystery and courtroom drama in the second half when there is a mysterious death at her home and she ends up defending her mother-in-law who is accused of murder.  

While the print is damaged and some footage is missing, the innovative mixing of genres gives it a riveting pace. It also remains both satirical and yet also poignant delving deep into discrimination faced by women. 

The film also featured in Shin Su-won’s Hommage (2022) that follows a filmmaker who attempts to restore the film and investigates what happened in the lost reels and examines the life of the filmmaker who worked in a male-dominated industry. 

The Girl Raised as a Future Daughter-in-law (1965)

Choi Eun-hee was one of the most recognizable faces of South Korean cinema of the 1960s and 1970s having starred in films such as The Flower in Hell (1958) and Mother and A Guest (1961)  - both directed by her husband Shin Sang-ok who was also the industry’s most powerful producer and head of Shin Films, South Korea’s first major studio. 

This afforded her opportunities to direct, and she subsequently made three films including her feature debut The Girl Raised as a Future Daughter-in-law that was released in 1965. She also stars as a young woman who is taken in by a rich family to be the future wife of a young man. 

What’s compelling about this film is the relationship between the woman and her mother-in-law who constantly insults her and repeatedly beats her whereas the men in the household are much warmer to her shedding light on dynamics between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It demonstrates that the prejudices facing women are also linked to social class since the main character is the daughter of a poor widow.

Choi sadly passed away in 2018 at the age of 91 with much attention paid to her career as an actress and the fact that she was kidnapped by North Korean agents in Hong Kong in 1978. Shin Sang-ok was also taken later when he went searching for her. What is less known is the fact that she also directed films –One-sided Love of Princess (1967) and An Unmarried Teacher (1972) being the other two. 

First Experience (1970)

One of the very few female directors working in the 1970s was Hwang Hye-mi who made three films in the early part of this decade ((First Experience (1970), When Flowers Sadly Fade Away (1972) and Relationship (1972)) but unfortunately all the prints are now lost and therefore impossible for them to be viewed. 

Her first film First Experience, stars Nam Goong-won and Kim Ji-mee as a couple facing middle age. Nam’s character meets a college dropout played by Yoon Jung-hee – one of the most prolific stars of her generation having appeared in over 300 films – on a plane on a trip to Busan and they begin a secret affair. 

Female characters in films of the 1970s were significant for their focus on sexuality that also appears to be evident in First Experience based on what was in the screenplay. The female protagonists in features such as Heavenly Homecoming to Stars (1974) and the hostess films including Yeong-ja’s Heyday (1975) faced many hardships but they were portrayed as heroines and were box office hits despite the overall decline in audience numbers during the decade.  

My Daughter Rescued From the Swamp (1984)

Korean independent films have dealt with the topic of young delinquents but an early example from the 1980s comes in the form of Lee Me-rye’s immensely engaging debut My Daughter Rescued From the Swamp that struck a chord with viewers in 1984 becoming the fifth biggest hit of the year.  

It centers on the relationship between a high school student and her parents. Once a model student (Kim Jin-ah), she rebels against her family after her father has an affair. She doesn’t attend school, loses her virginity, and her personality grows increasingly wild. 

While coming-of-age films had delved into the struggles of students amidst much unrest in the 1970s and 1980s, this film was unusual for how it depicts the psychological difficulties of young people and in such engaging fashion with its abundance of energy captured through Lee’s direction, and also the energetic leading performance of Kim Jin-ah, daughter of acting veteran Kim Jin-kyu (The Housemaid, Aimless Bullet (Obaltan)).

The Films of Yim Soon-rye   (1996 ~ 2023)

The filmmaker Yim Soon-rye stands out not just because she has made films encompassing different genres but also because she has been so successful, which in such a male-dominated industry is all the more significant. While there are a number of successful female producers including Shim Jae-myung (JSA), Oh Jung-wan (A Bittersweet Life) and Lee Eugene (Cold Eyes), female directors that have continued to make work in the commercial industry since the late 1990s is sadly much rarer. 

Yim made her feature debut in 1996 with Three Friends, a film about the lives of three young men who struggle to adjust to society starring Hyung Sung, Lee Jang-won and Hong Seong-yeong. Her focus on such characters would be evident in other films including her subsequent feature Waikiki Brothers (2001)– also centering on male characters. This is important because she has made films tackling different themes facing both men and women that has enabled her to embark on a range of projects. 

As the industry entered a downturn in the late 2000s, Yim Soon-rye surprised many in the industry with her sports drama Forever the Moment (2008) about Korea’s first female handball team that competed in the Athens Olympics. Sports films have generally been hit-and-miss at the box office, but this film sold 4 million tickets making it by some margin the most successful film ever directed by a woman. 

Her work in the 2010s included The Whistleblower (2014) about the disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk and the much-admired Little Forest (2019) that follows a young woman who moves back to the countryside. Both very different films attracting different audiences, it underscored her ability to tackle an array of themes.  

Little Forest based on the Japanese manga of the same name is part of a growing body of work – much of which are TV series like Hometown Cha Cha Cha– that romanticize the move to rural areas. Korean films haven’t always captured villages and islands as particularly idyllic, instead capturing them as provincial and isolated. Little Forest is in a sense a reversal of that.  

Her most recent film, the aforementioned The Point Men (2023), was an unconventional blockbuster. Although expensive, shot overseas in Jordan with its two A-list stars Hyun Bin and Hwang Jung-min playing an NIS Agent and diplomat, respectively, who attempt to secure the release of 23 South Korean missionaries held hostage in Afghanistan, it’s more a drama than an action-thriller. It’s reliant less on the set-pieces, more on the dialogue and performances giving it its own sensibility reflecting her wider work.

Edited by Shim Eunha

Written by Jason Bechervaise