The Widow (1955)

"A man is like butter, the husband is the bread"

The Widow is one of those movies I’d love to rate highly as it was the first film directed by a woman in South Korea. Park Nam Ok was treated so poorly that she never made another film. As best as I can tell, the script was also written by a woman. Thank you, ladies, for attempting to break through that iron ceiling. A heads up, the film is missing sound in the last ten minutes and the final part of the last reel is missing altogether. Now to the story…

Lee Shin Ja is a widow raising her young daughter Ju. Strapped for cash she meets with her husband’s wealthy friend, Mr. Lee (no relation) accepting money on occasion. Mr. Lee’s wife visits her and tells her to stay away from her husband, thinking the two are having an affair. Shin Ja’s hardscrabble neighbors drive the hoity toity woman off. When Shin Ja takes her daughter to the beach on the weekend, she discovers that Lee’s wife has her own secrets. Ju nearly drowns and Mrs. Lee’s lover, Taek, saves the girl. And before you can say “a man is like butter” we’ve got a love square going on. But wait! There’s more! Taek’s presumed dead lover comes to town. Make that a pentagon. At that point everyone should have heeded the warning sign and stopped.

Shin Ja was referred to as noble and she acted very demurely. She was graceful, spoke quietly, wore traditional clothes, and didn’t drink. She also dressed up and met with men in secluded places to talk and cajole money out of them. Why would a wife think that was suspicious? After meeting one of the men who was only dating a woman for the cash, they fell instantly in love and decided to marry. She then kicked her daughter out to be raised by the odd single dude two doors down. Ju nearly drown because Shin Ja was completely oblivious to the danger of a child in strong ocean surf by herself. If she said, “she’s such a burden” one more time I was ready to throw Shin Ja in the water. The 50s were a tough time for a single woman, especially a widow with a child. I could overlook her wheedling money out of men and looking for a husband. Abandoning her daughter to an older widower for a man was inexcusable. The movie completely lost me at that point. When her lover/common law husband hooked up with someone else, who cared? If this had been a comedy it might have made more sense, as it was, I began to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situations.

To sum up. Five stars to Park Nam Ok for having the strength to create this film, especially when she was blocked from entering the post-sound studio. I cannot imagine what she had to endure from every level of the craft to get this movie finished. I know how I would like the movie to finish ideally and it didn’t include the gigolo artist or company president but rather Shin Ja discovering she could take care of herself and her daughter by herself. Or if it went in a more realistic direction, Ju probably snapped and murdered everyone in their sleep after being shuttled about, ignored, and told what a burden she was. Like I mentioned, I really wanted to like this film, but discarding a child because she hampered romance was something I could not tolerate. I wish I could have said, "better luck next time Park Nam Ok", but she never received that chance. Truly the saddest thing about this film.

6 August 2026

Musical Note: At one point, two characters broke into song, reminiscent of the 1930s duets of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Because why not, with all the crazy shenanigans going on.

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