Budapest Classic Film Marathon 2025: The Widow

Director: Nam-ok Park

Screenplay by Bo-ra Lee
Director of photography: Yeong-sun Kim
Music by Baek-bong Jo, Yong-hwan Kim
Cast: Min-ja Lee, Seong-ju Lee, Tak-kyun Lee

Fantastic Women from the Orient

Introduction: Teréz Vincze, film critic, curator

Shortly after the Korean War a fearless woman took up her place behind the camera in the nascent film industry. Her name: Park Nam-ok. Film history’s first Korean female director could not be put off even by the heavy-handed sexism of the industry. Her movie is about women’s fates: the widow who lost her husband in the war yet despite the situation is determined to be happy, and as such is prepared to go against social expectations; the kind-hearted and helpful prostitute; and the wife who appears at first sight to be evil but whose fate, it transpires, has not been easy either. The denouement of the film has been lost and the final 10 minutes of what is left has no audio, but even so it is a fascinating film history relic and document of the period.

Korean Film Archive

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