Cinema
A Diary of Woman
여성일기
Hong Seong-gi · 1949
Synopsis
Inspired by the real life of Hwang On-sun, the film follows a young woman who loves the elder brother of her friend, Song Jae-ro. Deceived, she marries him, then discovers that he already has a lawful wife. She leaves this marriage, endures hardships and turns to social work, first with children, with the opening of a nursery, then with young men returned from forced labour in Japan.
Context
The film was released on 9 April 1949 at the Sudo Theatre in Seoul. Shot on reversal Kodachrome, with sound recorded separately on black-and-white film, it rendered its colours poorly when projected large, and stayed in cinemas for only a week, despite some fifty thousand viewers. Its subject, Hwang On-sun, was made famous by the American film Battle Hymn, by Douglas Sirk, in 1957, as the mother of war orphans. The encyclopedia of the Academy of Korean Studies states that it has not been preserved on film.
Who it is for
A lost film, known through histories of Korean cinema as the country's first experiment with colour.
Prizes and reception
About fifty thousand viewers in a week, many of them women, despite the flaws of the picture and sound.
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