Madame Freedom: What about the misses?

The film holistically condemns the life of vanity and so-called “freedom” on the part of married women. The idea of “freedom”, mainly portrayed through their economic independence from their husbands, is developed around the women of Hwagyohwe who are seen wearing opulent accessories. Women of Hwagyohwe are used as a portrait of life of vanity that married women of class resulting from economic “freedom”. As an extension of this economic independence, these women yearn for the same social and sexual “freedom” as their husbands’. As a result of this “freedom” for married women, Mrs. Oh’s family is broken down and Gyeong-Soo is uncared for, abandoned. Yoon-Joo, one of the most independent of the married women who is most adventurous in her entrepreneurial ventures and free in her social/sexual behaviour, meets the most tragic end as her lover Mr. Baek turns out to be a fraud and she commits suicide. Mrs. Oh’s own affairs turn out tragic as she is abandoned by Chun-Ho and is exposed of her affair with Mr. Han. She is turned out by her own husband only to be accepted back as a “mother”, as is clearly reinforced by Gyeong-Soo as he implores his dad to open the door because “his mother” is outside.

But what about the young, single women?  I find that the film’s attitude towards the younger generation of women to be a lot more ambiguous. The young women are portrayed as outright liberalists at times, then at other times to be more sensible, logical and traditional. The few misses that we see in the film are Miss Park (the typist who is interested in Prof. Jang) and other pupils, MyungOk (Mrs. Oh’s niece, Chun-Ho’s girlfriend), and Suni (the maid who works at Prof. Jang’s), the workers at the boutique who work with Mrs. Oh. Myung-Ok is described as a “liberalist” by her mother because she wants to choose her own husband and is interested in going to US to live. She loves to dance and seems to have a free relationship with Chun-Ho (who says that Myung-Ok is “just a dance partner” for him and that he has many friends like that). Also, all the misses in the film seems to have a job and seemingly more independent than married women. On the other hand, Suni has the more traditional role of a women, being a maid who is always seen at home, doing house chores; Miss Park is the one who is able to hold the control of the situation and tell Prof. Jang to go home and back to his family; one of the young worker at the boutique does not approve of the relationship between Mr. Han and Mrs. Oh and reports it to Mr. Han’s wife.

Why? If it is the intention of the director to condemn “Madame Freedom”, then why leave the young misses out of it and focus on the “withering roses” (as Yoon-Joon puts it)?

(Also, did anybody else feel that all the actresses in the movie were around the same age? I found it amusing how I couldn’t tell if someone was a miss or a Mrs. if they didn’t say it explicitly. I mean, MyoungOk looks as old as Mrs. Oh…)