Freedom? What's that? Brave heart?

If the above clip and/or history have taught us one thing, it's that freedom can be very important to some people!

But what is freedom? How do we define freedom? Are you free? Truly? Yes? Are you Sure? Am I free for dinner tonight? Am I free to write a blog in whatever style I want? So many questions, so much ambiguity...

I'd like to focus on the title of the movie and what it means. Madame is a formal way to address a woman in French. Freedom is, well, freedom... maybe we will figure out what it is by the end of this post. Madame+freedom= Miss Freedom = Free Woman.

Sun-yeong is the traditional Korean wife, she is married, has a child, stays at home and seems to ask her husband permission for anything she might do. Her transformation to this "Madame Freedom" is quite entertaining. At first, Sun-yeong comes off as very reluctant to try these new “modern” woman activities, she is doubtful about a lot of things even though she always ends up going the whole 9 yards. She starts working at a “foreign goods” shop, attends meetings with other married women who spend a lot of time gossiping about anything, comparing each other and preparing events, she also starts going to dance halls. Her character seems to be in constant war with itself, like the little angel and devil that pops up on either side of our shoulders every now and then (no? anyone?). The angel part would be giving her doubts, whereas the devil part would be pushing her on to continue on the path of becoming a “modern” woman.

I relate the film’s notion of a modern woman with the little devil on her shoulder because I think Sun-yeong’s idea of a modern woman or a “Madame Freedom” is twisted. To be “free” would mean to be dishonest, manipulative and rich. Ideals Sun-yeong’s friends and “lovers” have lived by and attempt to model her after, which she eventually does. I thought the scene where she confronts her husband about Eun-mi is interesting since she boasts to him about having guys with whom she can walk with late at night. It looked like she was trying to compete with her own husband, that by telling him that, she would be seen as an equal to him, that she too can have boyfriends to fool around with. We see a shift in power and a “masculinity” trait shifting from the husband to the wife.

The modern Korean woman power seems to reflect a lot of the Western society way of life as Kim analyzes it. After being involved with the shop, Sun-yeong adopts a second sexual & consumerist identity which leads to her downfall.

Madame Freedom wasn’t so free after all, in fact she seemed trapped inside a world of lies.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo what IS freedom?

Freedom was shown briefly on screen. The scene with the dancer was great, because that was freedom. She was dancing by herself, which was interesting since every other dancing scene involved couples. She was free from man. She wasn’t wearing any shoes, which is unusual in everyday life but dancers tend to do that to move more “freely”. To express yourself honestly in front of an audience is a very hard thing to do, and I think if Sun-yeong would of expressed what she thought or felt at any point during the movie, the outcome would of been vastly different.