Modernization in a Patriarchal Society

Madame Freedom 1956 directed by Han Hyeong-Mo is a great example of a women steping out of her gender binaries in a post war patriarchal society. Madame Oh’s transformation from a traditional and primitive woman to a modern woman full of vanity. In a patriarchal society such as this the women are supposed to be at home taking care of the house and the children. At the beginning of the film, Madame Oh must ask her husband's permission whether she can accept the job or not. when a woman becomes modern or out stepping her gender role she is seen as hysterical or abandoning her family when in reality she is wants to step out of the gender binary. Why was her husband so angry at the end of the film when he found out she was with another man? He was seeing Eun mee most nights of the week. He claims in this still that it was her vanity that was her vanity which caused her to abandon her family. But in my opinion I am still questioning whether it was her greed and/or attraction of becoming a more modernized women.

The confrontation between Madame Oh and Professor Jang, she argues to him that she knows that he goes out with Eun mee and that she isn’t jealous of it. The only thing I don’t understand is why he doesn’t argue back ? I feel like I would of liked to see his reaction to her bluntness. We really see a transformation in this scene from the women who doted on her husband to cheating on him with her boss. 

As weird as this may sound I really wanted her to kiss Chung ho in the end; I thought that would of shown a truly modernized woman, going against society, her husband and kissing a younger man. Since women kissing married men happens a lot more I thought that the director should have made it happen instead of the classic married man.

Concerning the ending of the movie. I feel as if the director demonstrated how Madame Oh’s transformation into a modern women resulted in a failed family. She failed to keep up her image as the perfect stay at home wife while she was out dancing at night. This allows me wonder whether the director was demonstrating a more feminist point of view or was he against women being modernized?