Confucianism and Feminism: Women on Screen from the Late 1990s in South Korea - Essay Example

Confucianism in Korea Confucianism is the most remarkable ideology in Korea. It is a philosophical system set up by a Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479BC) about 2500 years ago. Aimed to shape a balanced relationship in families as well as countries. The first record showed the existence of Confucianism in Korea was back in the 4th century, where Korea peninsula was divided into three kingdoms. ‘Koguryo’, ‘Paekche’ and ‘Silla’. Koguryo was located in the north (37 BCE – 668 CE), Paekche was in the southwest (18 BCE – 660 CE) and Silla in the southeast (57 BCE – 935 CE). The philosophy of Confucianism entered Korea from China, along with new religions, literatures, technologies and commercial goods. Under a policy called “tribute diplomacy”, which was a common method in ancient China. It shows their wealth by involving trading business and providing cultures with foreign nations. During the Three Kingdoms period, China was recognised as a superior nation within Asia with wide and unified territories, highly accomplished bureaucracy advanced technologies and cultures while the three kingdoms were relatively underdeveloped. It was not only because the country is geographically isolated (the peninsula is surrounded by the East Sea and the Yellow Sea). The frequent occurrence of conflicts and wars between kingdoms, lack of governmental structure were also main reasons. As a neighbourhood, the prosperity of China had threatened Korea. The three kingdoms eventually realised cultural innovations that were important in the country, therefore, in order to civilise the country, they initialled to exchange goods such as ginseng, horses, furs and hemps. In return with Chinese books, medicines, silks and so on, sought to maintain a close relationship with China. Another reason the three kingdoms decided to keep friendship with China was because in ancient Korea, Korean language was lacking writing system. Chinese characters were the only writing and reading method, thus, the spread of Chinese arts, literature, poetries and sciences enabled Koreans to gain knowledge effectively. Subsequently, Confucianism spread continually in Korea and gradually became influential. Changes of dynasty didn’t stop the impact of Confucianism in Korea. Instead, rather than just a philosophical theory, Confucianism were transforming into a method of domination in Koryo dynasty (918-1392) and Choson dynasty (1392-1910), (the longest dynasty in Korean history). Schools and universities opened classes teaching Confucian studies. Law, government and examination system were set up based on the Confucius philosophy that finally turned into a major administration tool in Choson dynasty. During that period, the first King Taejo (1335-1408), began to reform the Confucian ethics by adopting more Confucian values. While the traditional Confucian concepts were still retained, aiming to consolidate and sustained the harmony within the kingdom. The new value (Neo-Confucianism) also shaped the structure clearly in the society. The behaviours and moralities within communities and families became highly restrictive, and people were categorised into different social classes based on their identities. Under the vigorous promotions by Taejo, the new adoption of Neo-Confucianism rapidly became a set of national ideology and stability sustained throughout the dynasty. Until the 20th century, the value of Confucianism was not as influential as the previous era. This was because of the entry of Western culture and the frequent occasions of invasions and wars. However, the five centuries of Neo-Confucianism ideology established by Taejo lead Korea to became the biggest Confucian nation in the world and its value is still remaining of certain impacts in the society today. Gender inequality: How has Confucianism influencing women’s life in Korea. Confucian ethics have been playing a major role to maintain the status between men and women since the ancient time. This can be trace back to the Choson dynasty; after Neo-Confucianism had restored the form of family and society. Men and women were allocated to different social classes and responsibilities that particularly restricted women’s life. Confucian virtues claimed that men are the head over other members of the family and society. Women were subordinate to them, and responsible to be submissive, filial piety and chastity, literature. such as “The Book of Poetry” also clearly stated the role difference between men and women. Women were unable to participate in the public, not allowed to be educated but to stay home and learn how to take care of their husband’s family and children. Women were unable to address by their own name to others but to call themselves based on the position in the family such as the wife of Younghi or the mother of ByungHo;(Connor, 2009). Women also had no right to initiate divorce under any circumstances yet men could divorce if women against the “seven evils”, which was a Confucian idea, indicated seven conditions for divorce. They included disobeying parents-in-law, bearing no son, committing adultery and so on. Therefore, under the Neo-Confucian value, men became highly dominance within both families and societies while women’s social status dropped significantly, and the situation remained throughout the dynasty. Until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Korea began communicating with the United States, and it was the first time Korea had an awareness of social equality after learning from the West. Thus, women had more freedom to study, and eventually, the first girl’s school in Korea, Ewha Girls School, established in 1886. It begun with a group of American missionaries, teaching women from basic knowledge such as reading and writing skills towards theories of politics and human rights. In addition, The Independence Club, one of the organisations who support women’s education, emphasised the equality between women and men. They also gave impetus to women’s equality. 1910, Korea was engaged by the Empire of Japan which continued for 35 years. Under the domination by Japan, Korean was forced to give up their culture, language and even their Korean names but taught to become Japanese under a brainwashing education entirely in Japanese language. Nevertheless, as the empire intended to “Japanese” all Koreans, women had more changes to be educated. Meanwhile, Korean realised that the promotion of education was essential to save their nation from foreign power. Consequently, women were encouraged to study, and more girl schools were established. In the following decades, education rate of women prominently increased, women owned their thought and skills to involved into the society and even able to participate in political movements as much as men. Women’s status was slightly expanded after Korean War (1950-1953). The war resulted in a division of the Korean Peninsula into two countries along the 38th parallel. South Korea (Officially called Republic of Korea) occupied the south part of the peninsula and North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) occupied the north. In this period, South Korea was undergoing a process of economic, industry and society recovery. The huge demand for labour force gave women an opportunity to work and benefited them to enjoy a elevated social rank in the society. Until the 00’s, the spreads of Western culture (especially from the U.S.) in South Korea mobilised the rise of feminism. Government started to face the long-lasting problem of gender inequality and began to co-operate with women’s organisations. Nowadays in South Korea, revision of law ensured women to be treated as equal as men. They enjoy rights to vote, participate in any occasion including political events, financial independences and so on. They are also well educated and capable to hold a higher position in the workplace as men do. Notable evidence such as Park Geun-hye (1952- ), who won the presidential election in 2012, is the first and current female president in Korea. This demonstrated that the authority has no longer predominated only by men today. Women on screen in the 90s Due to the influences of Confucianism, gender equality has always been a major subject matter debating in Korea. Issues such as transformation of gender roles in domestic family and society or conflicts between tradition and modern value of morality are usually brought up for discussion through literature, TV dramas or movies. “Happy End” (Jung Ji-woo, 1999) is one of the controversial films in the late 90s about an unemployed man who managed to murder his unfaithful wife. The man Min-ki (Choi Min-sik) is an unemployed banker, he spends his time at home doing housework, taking care of her baby daughter and reading romantic novels without finding a new job. His wife Bo-ra (Jeon Do-yeon) is an attractive and talented career woman who is the only member supporting the family. The fact that Min-ki remains home and being passive makes Bo-ra feel resentful, and her loneliness gradually leads to her ex-lover Il-beom (Joo Jin-mo). Bo-ra initials an extremely intensive affair with Il-beom to satisfy her spiritual and sexual needs that Min-ki didn’t provide. After the affair continued for a while, Il-beon starts to convince her to divorce with Mi-ki yet she has no intention to leave the family because of her newborn daughter. Therefore, the rejection from Bo-ra and his jealousy causes Il-beom to approach Bo-ra openly and as a result Min-ki starts being sceptical of his wife. However, Min-ki chooses to keep silent and pretends nothing happened as he does love his wife and treasures his family. Until one day his baby daughter is sent to the hospital due to poisoning, and he discovers that it is because Bo-ra feeds their daughter sleeping pills as to meet her lover. It eventually drives him to kill Bo-ra as revenge to end the preposterous situation. The film director Jung simply uses a family issue to bring out a critical question about gender roles in the society today. The appearance of the two main characters Min-ki and Bo-ra represented a contrast between masculine and feminine. Unlike a typical man dominance family, their role is completely reversed. The husband Min-ki plays the role of a traditional Korean wife who in charges the duty of the housework and connects with other female neighbour. He is progressively losing his masculinity; in contrast, Bo-ra is a successful woman who works hard and financially supports her family. On the other hand, Bo-ra’s affair with Il-beom also reflects the reversion of their role. In typical Korean stereotype, men are the one who usually have affair. Women are the one suffering; however, In “Happy End” Bo-ra is the one who has an affair, leaving her husband home. Furthermore, throughout the sexual scenes performed in the movie. It also implies the loss of Min-ki’s power and masculinity. Sexual scenes play a significant role in “Happy End. When it was first released in 1999, it gave a big shock to the audiences as the sexual contents were extremely strong. Particularly the 5 minutes long sexual scene between Bo-ra and Il-beom in the opening was realistic and erotic. They were making out entirely uncovered at Il-beom’s house, kissing, caressing, pleasing each other and moaning filled with passions. Several scenes of her sexual activities with Il-beom seem to emphasise that Bo-ra is a wanton and unchaste woman. However, when it came to the scene when Min-ki and Bo-ra were having sex covered by the quilt with no passions, Bo-ra’s face was dull. Her unpleasant intimacy with her husband does not only reflect the dissatisfaction in her physical desire, but also mirrors the real situation of her family life and the incapability of Min-ki. Apart from Jung’s “Happy End”, movie such as “Jeong-sa” (Lee J-young, 1998), “3-Iron” (Kim Ki-duk, 2004), “April Snow” (Hur Jin-ho, 2005), and “A Day for an Affair” (Jang Moon-il, 2007) also take women’s affair as a concept. In “Jeong-sa”, Seo-hyun (Lee Mi-suk) is a middle-aged housewife married to an architect husband with a 10 years old son. Lliving in a luxury life provided by her successful husband that everyone wishes for. However, the upper-class comfort also brings her a boring life filled with a set of routine. A routine that she can’t get out of, and it makes her gradually lose herself. While she is going to give up struggling with her fate, an appearance of a man completely changes her life.Woo-in (Lee Jeong-jae), a 27-year-old man who is the fiancé of Seo-hyun’s younger sister Ji-hyun, recently back from the U.S.A. And is looking for a house, Seo-hyun notices that he has no relatives in Korea and her sister is still in U.S.A. So she decides to take care of him until Ji-hyun returns. Seo-hyun initially took it as a responsibility to help her “future brother-in-law” but during the times they get along. There is a strong chemistry formed between them: Woo-in is attracted by her gentleness and her elegance of beauty, while Seo-hyun is attracted by his romantic characteristic, and also Woo-in’s life experiences. This makes Seo-hyun starts yearning to explore the outside world. Their attraction towards each other soon turns into a passionate love, though they both aware that it is a forbidden relationship. They begin to have secret trysts at Woo-in’s home, in the video game room or even in her son’s school to fulfil both of their sexual and spiritual desire. Up to this point, the content of “Jeong-sa” seems to have no big differences with “Happy End” in general. There wives are not happy with their family, seeking for love and after that having an intensive sexual relationship with a young man. However, the ending of “Jeong-sa” goes into a different direction. Unlike the extremely dark and terrified ending of “Happy end”, in “Jeong-sa”, Seo-hyun didn’t get punished at all. She is even being forgiven by her husband. In fact, rather than showing the negative side of a love affair like “Happy End”, director Lee is more concerns about the importance of personal transformation of woman than judging the correctness of adultery. It is because the power of feminism in the late 90’s in Korea is still too weak to fight against the stereotype of patriarchy. Only if women realise the right and freedom that they mean to have and dare to fight for it can truly change the unequal society. Thus, in order to break the stereotype and deliver the message of women liberation, Lee uses the scenario of a love affair as a cue to show the self-finding process of Seo-hyun. Throughout the relationship with Woo-in, she finds back her attractiveness, vitality, independence and her curiosity to the outside world. She also discovers how to be honest to herself which encourages her to leave the cage and chase for freedom that finally leads her decides to leave her family and lover. Flies to a new place and start a new life all by myself at the end. 00s Since the early 00s, the rising influences of feminist movement in South Korea leaded women images became more diverse on screen. instead of the traditional Korean movies in the past where women usually performed as a mother or a wife in a family. In the new generation they were portrayed as a well educated, professional and independent character that capable enough to be in charged in a relationship. A notable film such as “My Sassy Girl” (Kwak Jae-yong, 2001), a romantic comedy that is based on a popular on-line novel by Kim Ho-sik. It narrates about an extraordinary relationship of a young couple. The protagonist Kyun-woo (Cha Tae-hyun) is a moronic yet innocent college student. One day on a late night subway he saw a drunken girl (Jeon Ji-hyun) having conflict with a middle-aged man and puking on the carriage. It amazed him; while Kyung-woo is about to leave, the girl suddenly walks to him and calls him “honey” then passes out. This makes other passengers assuming him to be the drunken girl’s boyfriend, and force him to take care of her. Therefore, Kyung-woo brings the girl to a motel and looks after her until the next day morning. This accident unexpectedly changes his life ever since. Soon after their first meet at the motel, Kyung-woo and the girl start dating. The girl has a pretty and pure appearance and she is a music student in a reputed college. She seems to be a perfect woman, yet Kyung-woo realises the fact that she is extremely emotional and her overbearing. When the girl feels ache because of her high heels, she forces Kyung-woo to swap his trainers with her. When Kyung-woo orders something else but coffee, she forces him to change his order to coffee. She also likes to kick him, slap him or shout at him for no reason. It is assured that Kyung-woo feels extremely suffered. However, throughout the abnormal relationship, Kyung-woo starts to discover her barbaric behaviour is actually a feint to hide her inner wound with a heart-broken memory. Thus Kyung-woo determines to stay with her and manages to heal the girl’s heart. Even though the storyline is quite exaggerating and unusual the content in “My Sassy Girl” is not at all meaningless. The subverted characteristics of Kyung-woo and the girl actually reflected the phenomenon of weakening patriarchal value after the occurrence of Asian financial crisis. A disaster that ruthlessly collapsed the booming economy in South Korea in the 1997,.In fact, the economy is a key aspect that influences men’s social status. In the past centuries, due to the influence of Confusion ethic, men were the only labour force in the country. Therefore, career achievements became a core value of themselves to show their ability, social reputation, self-dignity, fit as their main role in the family. Until the 20th century, a turning point started changing the gender roles. After Korean War, the economy recovery and rapid industrialisation, modernization, urbanisation and technological advancement provided a huge demand of labour force. Therefore, though the enduring tradition of patriarchy still obstructs women to own equal rights as men. They began to have more opportunities to get a job and enjoy more independence. The participation of women in labour force conspicuously speeded up the development in South Korea. Where buy notable multinational conglomerates such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai Moto Group were also thrived at this time. Leaded the country soon transformed from a typical developing country pattern to the 15th world’s largest economy. However in 1997, Asian financial crisis caused the occurrence of hyperinflation, currency devaluation, and company’s bankruptcy. This resulted in a large population of unemployment. Meanwhile, the raising feminist movement successfully helped women to be more educated, independent and to be treated as equally as men. These two occasions completely blow the traditional male-dominant structure and also perished the dignity of men. Therefore, Korean movies in late 1990s were the starting point where “Happy End” and “Jeong Sa” began to show the evidence of losing power of patriarchy; in 2000s. The sense of weaken masculinity became more obvious and thorough going. Apart from the example of “My Sassy Girl”, melodramas in this period such as “One Fine Spring Day” (2001, Hur Jin-ho) and “Over the Rainbow” (2002) also portrayed the transformation of gender authority. In “One Fine Spring Day”, a late 20s recording engineer Sang-woo (Yoo Ji-tae) gets a job to work with a lady Eun-soo (Lee Yeong-ae). A radio announcer who wants to apply sounds from the nature on her program. Therefore they travel to a bamboo forest recording the gentle susurration of the foliage and visit the nearby neighbourhood. A neighbourhood they were having an enjoyable first collaboration together. Eun-so is a smart and capable woman who is very passionate about her job. In contrast with her beauty and cute looking, she has a strong personality. While Sang-woo is actually a quiet and mild guy with his masculine outlook. When they work together, their characteristics cause them into conflicts sometimes yet there are also nice humours that gradually raise the attractions towards each other. By the time of their next recording trip. The fancy sound of snow on bells makes a romantic atmosphere that is finally opening up their love feelings. Thus, after finishes work, Eun-soo invites Sang-woo to her house having ramen and asks him to sleep over. However, their relationship shortly meltdown because of Eun-soo’s wired behaviour. Sang-woo initially tries to be understandable to Eun-soo as he is deeply in love with her. Her emotional as well as her frequent disappearance start making him suffer. When few months pass, Eun-soo turns up, and they sleep together again but on the next day she suddenly asks Sang-woo to separate without giving a reason. In fact, Eun-soo is a divorcee that has been living under the shadow for long time. After her experience of a failure marriage; though she thought her encounter with Sang-woo could be a chance to heal her broken heart at the beginning. The devotion from Sang-woo gradually makes her scared and feels stressful. This leads to her realises the fact that she is still unable to overcome her past. Eun-soo thereafter decides to strike against Sang-woo and back to her ordinary life, leaving Sang-woo traps into an endless and painful abyss alone. “Buses and women are like – once they leave, they’ll never stop for you”. Lee Sang-woo (One Fine Spring Day, 2001). This notable quote clearly concludes the new ideology of women. In “One Fine Spring Day”, Eun-soo is no longer like a traditional Korean woman. Though the failure marriage leaves her a huge scar, her experience of divorcing has nothing to with her career and social life. Where she is still having a proper job, holding a radio program by herself, and also owns the freedom to choose they way she wants to live without being blamed. This is an impossible circumstance back in the previous centuries. Furthermore, Eun-soo even plays a predominant role in the movie. For instance, Eun-soo is the employer who hires Sang-woo to be the recording man. When they are working together, Sang-woo can only give suggestions but not able to make decisions. On the other hand, throughout their relationship Eun-soo changes Sang-woo in many ways; in fact, Sang-woo’s life was pretty simple until the day he encounters Eun-soo. Her unusual behaviours and emotions give Sang-woo a lot of different new experiences and excitements. The bitter-sweet romance also teaches him the cruel reality of love. In contrast, Sang-woo doesn’t seem to be influential to Eun-soo at all. They have had great times together, Eun-soo is still unable to get over her past marriage. The love from Sang-woo, and his passion even becomes a pressure to her, so she ends up leaving him with no trace, back to normal like nothing ever happened. “Over the Rainbow” has a similar description of men as well through a story of an amnesia weather presenter. Jin-soo (Lee Jeong-jae) suffers a problem of selective amnesia after a car accident that loses partial of his college memories. Jin-soo initially unawares of the missing old memory as it didn’t cause him any issues in his current life. But until the day he finds a photograph of a girl, he realises that someone important in his past is being forgotten. Therefore he starts to revisit his old college friends to investigate the girl’s identity. Jin-soo’s investigation was not easy at the beginning. The photograph only gives you an idea about the back of the girl that none of his friends could recognise who she is. He, therefore, contacts each of his girlfriends in college and finally leads him to Yeon-hee (Jang Jin-young).A girl who works in a lost and found centre at subway station. With Yeon-hee’s enthusiastic help, though she has no idea about the girl in the photo. Jin-soo gradually recalls his old time with friends in the photography club. They used to celebrate birthday, travel around and do stupid things together. Which is the happiest period ever in his life. Yeon-hee thereafter continues to help Jin-soo finding his memories back and their feelings soon develop unwittingly towards each other. As a result, Jin-soo loses his interest in finding the identity of the girl and started to doubt whether it is worth chasing a girl in the past. He eventually finds Yeon-hee is the one he wants to treasure the most. Bibliography Childs, C. 2005, Jung Ji-woo’s Happy End: Modernity, Musicality and Murder. Asian Cinema.Vol.16 #2, pp.210-220. Choe, S.H. 2015, Adultery Is No Longer an Affair of the State in South Korea. The New York Times.[Internet]. Available from: . Chuck, S. 2004, Korea Prospects: Introduction: Local Heroes: The Many Faces of Korean Cinema’s Perpetual Renaissance. Film Comment, November, pp.36-39. Connor, E. 2009, The Koreas.ABC-CLIO. Edwards, R. 2007, Film Reviews: Jeonju in Brief: “A Day for an Affair”. Variety, 21 May, p.54. Elley, D. 1998, Film Reviews: PUSAN – AN AFFAIR. Variety, 30 November, p.67. Elley, D. 2000, Film Reviews. Variety, 22 May, p.30. Gowman, P. 2012, Onrewatching some favourite films: An Affair and Secret Sunshine. London Korean Links.[Internet]. Available from: < http://londonkoreanlinks.net/2012/02/11/on-rewatching-some-favourite-films-an-affair-and-secret-sunshine/> [Accessed 8 February 2015]. Hahm, C. 2004, The Ironies of Confucianism. Journal of Democracy [Internet].July pp.93-107. Available from: [Assessed 10 February 2015]. Hahm, C. 2008, South Korea’s Miraculous Democracy.Journal of Democracy [Internet].July pp.128-142. Available from: [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Kor, E. 2008, Gender issues and Confucian scriptures: Is Confucianism incompatible with gender equality in South Korea?.Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.University of London [Internet].June pp.345-362. Available from: [Accessed 5 February 2015]. Lee, H.Y., Ha, Y.C. & Sorensen, C.W. 2013, Colonial Rule & Social Change in Korea 1910-1945. Seattle, London: University of Washington Press. Lee, M. 2000, Happy End.Screen International, 23 June, p.42. Leong, A. 2002, Korean Cinema: The New Hong Kong. Victoria: National Library of Canada. Myers, B.R. 2009, The Cleanest Race – How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters. Brooklyn: Melville House Publishing. Paquet, D. 2009, New Korean Cinema – Breaking The Wave. New York: Columbia University Press. Quinn, P. 2012, HAPPY END.Hangul Celluloid.[Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Songuniverse, 2011, Unresolved Contradictoriness-HAPPY END.In my imagination.[Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Spencer, L. 2004, Revenger’s Tragedy. Sight and Sound, 14 October, pp.18-20. Read More