Park Nam-ok's Dream

" It is the hard work of Lee Bo-ra and Jeon Chang-geun, who are in charge of playwriting, to organize the film " The Widow " with such a dramatic uniformity.
It is an introductory article about the film ' The Widow ' directed by South Korea's first female film director Park Nam-ok, which was released in 1955. A 32-year-old woman, named Park Nam-ok, played the role of the director of the staff, carrying a skirt jacket and a baby baby girl. Unfortunately, the film was a box office hit and dropped its signboard four days after it was released. The promotion of the film, the first female director, didn't seem to have helped the box office. However, it is memorable that Park Nam-ok, who made the movie even in the difficult environment of the Korean film industry, was so passionate.
Park Nam-ok was born 95 years ago on February 24, 1923, in white, Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province. When I was a high school student at Gyeongbuk High School, I watched the Berlin Olympics record film ' The National Festival of Korea ' and ' The Festival of Beauty ' and had a dream for the movie. She was good at physical education, so she won the women's shot put event at the National Sports Festival, setting a new Korean record for three consecutive times.
After failing to major in physical education due to family opposition, Ewha still entered the department of housework in 1943, but dropped out the following year when her family forced her to marry her. He was on a stowaway ship to go to Tokyo to study art, but he was stranded and returned from a Japanese prison camp. Afterwards, he wrote a movie review by working as a reporter in Daegu Daily Newspaper.
Right after liberation, he moved to Seoul to study at a filming studio in Gwanghui-dong, a Korean film company, under the direction of director Yoon Yong-gyu. In 1947, he entered the filming scene as a scriptter on the new oath by director Shin Kyung-kyun, and joined the Korean Defense Ministry's filming team and participated in news shooting classes.
She married playwright Lee Bo-ra in Busan in 1953. She gave birth to her daughter in June 1954 and started shooting " The Widow " in July 1954, right after the birth of her husband.
She borrowed money from her older sister to make production costs, and conducted the film with her baby on her back, movie equipment on her hand, and diaper bag on her hand. In the morning, I cooked the staff meals by myself.
" It was a movie that made it harder to have a baby, " he later recalled.
While editing the film in an empty house in the cold winter, the child went to the brink of pneumonia and was even criticized by recording studio staff for not being able to record women's work from the beginning of the year.
The movie, starring immigrants, Lee Taek-kyun, Na Ae-sim, and Choi Nam-hyun, was made with 16mm black and white features. The original title was " The Tears of the Widow. " It is a movie about the conflict that the main character who lost his husband during the Korean War and lives with a young daughter falls in love with a young man. The focus was on how women, who were swayed by the war, could find their new identity. She described a woman who can seriously reflect on her life through her experiences, rather than hurt by a man in the reality of her distress.
The film was released at the Seoul Central Theater in late March 1955, but failed to make it, becoming Park Nam-ok's debut and final film. A female director who failed to make a big hit and got divorced was not given a chance to direct her second film.
Park Nam-ok, who has long been forgotten in the film industry, has been reborn as Korea's first female film director at the first Seoul Women's Film Festival. The opening screening film of the first Seoul Women's Film Festival, which opened on April 11, 1997, was screened as the opening film of the first Seoul Women's Film Festival. The Korea Film Festival's executive committee searched through the movie schedules to find the country's first female film director and presented it to audiences by restoring negative films that were kept in Korean video sources. Film roll in the final section of the final conclusion was missing, and the last 10 minutes of the remaining film were incomplete without sound.
Park Nam-ok joined the Dong-A publishing company in 1957 and served as the managing director for 23 years. In 1959, he founded the monthly film magazine " Sinema Fan. " She moved to the U.S. in 1992 to settle down with her daughter. He died on April 8, 2017 in Los Angeles at the age of 94.
In 2001, the Women's Film Workers ' Association of the Division described Park Nam-ok's film life through the documentary ' Beautiful Survival : A Movie That a Female Movie Man speaks of. ' Park Nam-ok, an autobiography written by Park Nam-ok, was published in October last year after her only daughter kept her autograph for three years from 1999 to 2002.
The second female director after Park Nam-ok is Hong Eun-won, an assistant director. He entered Korea Pictures in 1946 and worked as a scriptter for 11 years, starting with Choi In-gyu's " Uncorrupted sinner " in 1948, and worked as an assistant director for four years. His first director was " The Woman's Complainant, " which was released on July 2, 1962. The movie is about the death of Hwang Yoon-seok, the first female publisher to make headlines at the time.
Actress Choi Eun-hee became the third female director in 1965 after Hong Eun-won. As the fifth female director in October 1984, 15 years after Hwang Hye-mi directed " The First Experience " in 1970, Lee Mi-rye released her daughter from the mire.
The 19th Seoul International Women's Film Festival, which opened on June 2 last year, said it plans to award Park Nam-ok's film award for the first time in nine years to new female directors of feature-led films. Park Nam-ok was awarded the Film Award in 2008 for donating his money to encourage Im Soon-rye, a junior director who produced the documentary " Beautiful Survival. " However, he was not able to receive the award due to financial problems. Kim Mi-jeong, the winner of the movie " Park Nam-ok, " was chosen as the winner of the award.
Compared to those of Park Nam-ok, many female filmmakers are active these days. But the results are not very satisfactory yet. According to a recent survey by the Korean Film Council, only five (6.8 percent) of Korean commercial films involving female directors have participated in the past five years. The survey was conducted on commercial films with a total production cost of over 1 billion won or a maximum number of screens.
The female lead has been 77 films in the last five years, accounting for about 24 percent. The number of commercial films that female producers participated in was 16.2 (22.2 %) and 22 (30.1 %) of them were female authors. Only 2.4 films (3.29 percent) participated in the film, or 3.29 percent).
Many female filmmakers must have tried hard to achieve their dreams during difficult times. Unfortunately, very little is known in the world.
Park Nam-ok's wish was to make a second film. Although the wish did not come true, it is fortunate that his work was revealed to the world during his lifetime, earning respect and love as the nation's first female director.
[Global Korea Center Advisor]