Back to All Events

A WOMAN JUDGE (1962) - Korean Cinema Echoes

hong eun won.jpeg

 

 

 

  • Director: Hong Eun-won
  • Year : 1962
  • Country: South Korea
  • run-time. 87 mins
  • rating. 15
  • FREE

Doors Open 7.30pm
Programme Start 8pm
Online booking highly recommended


Once a month, in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Centre, we proudly hold free screenings of classic and contemporary films from the peninsula. We conclude our 2018 season (😭) with the 2nd ever female-directed Korean film, once believed lost and recently restored. Introduced by Johan Hallstrom, student in Film Curation at Birkbeck University.


A young, determined woman, Jin-suk, has her mind set on becoming a judge. Encouraged by her father who sends her off to a monastery to focus on her studies, and despite her mother’s fervent efforts to marry her off to a wealthy suitor, Jin-suk defiantly follows her own path. With those around her doing nothing but oppose and obstruct, should she relent and follow the route society expects of her, or can she go against all odds and fulfil her dream? 

Hong Eun-won, the second woman in Korea to direct a film, said that she was “...interested in making films that depicted the lives of women, but seen through a woman’s eyes rather than imagined by male writers and directors.” In taking this approach, Hong boldly challenged both the melodramatic portrayals of women in Korean cinema of the time, and the directorial world that remains to this date monopolised by men.

Earlier Event: September 16
LOVE IS THE DEVIL (1998) - Scalarama Event
Later Event: September 20
LIFE DRAWING at Deptford Cinema