The Widow
Schedule
Overview
Shinja, who lives as a refugee with her daughter Ju, scrapes a living with the help of Seongjin, a friend of her husband who died during the Korean war. However, Seongjin’s goodwill toward Shinja slowly turns into affection. After sensing this development, Seongjin’s wife is unable to contain her jealousy and hysteria and tries to fill the hole in her heart with Taek, who she meets by chance.
* This film is missing the last part of the original print and has no sound for the last 10 minutes.
** Source: Korean Film Archive
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Review
The Widow is the debut and only film of Korea’s first female director Park Nam-ok. She is renowned for a photograph showing her with a child on her back, which captures her dual role as a filmmaker and a mother, as she had to bring her child to the set due to the lack of childcare at the time. This image is reflected in the figure of Lee Shinja of The Widow, who struggles for her survival amid the fractured landscape of conservative ideologies after the war. The film follows the story of Lee Shinja, a widow who lost her husband in the Korean War and was left alone with a child, to meet a new partner. She is forced to choose between motherhood and love. Lee Shinja makes a rare choice in Korean cinema by opting for love over motherhood, but she is depicted as doomed to fail whichever path she chooses. Even though she were to choose motherhood, she would be unable to properly take care of her child due to work commitments. The film neither objectifies nor morally condemns the desires of women in harsh conditions of the time.(PARK Seho)
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Credit
- DirectorPARK Nam-ok
- ProducerJEON Chang-geun
- ScreenplayLEE Bo-ra
- CinematographyKIM Young-soon
- GafferLEE Han-chan
- MusicCHO Baek-bong
- EditorJEONG Jun
- SoundLEE Gyeong-sun
- CastLEE Min-ja, LEE Seong-ju, LEE Taek-gyun, NA Ae-shim
Film Source
Korean Film Archive⎜program@koreafilm.or.kr
Director
PARK Nam-ok
Born in Hayang, Gyeongsangbuk-do, in 1923. Park Nam-ok is Korea’s first female film director. While working as a newspaper reporter in Daegu, she entered the film industry as an editor and scripter at Joseon Film Company. Her film The Widow (1955) was her debut and final film.
