MADAME FREEDOM (1956)
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Créditos:
TÍTULO: Jayu buin / 자유부인 / Madame Freedom
AÑO: 1956
PAÍS: Corea del Sur
IDIOMA: Coreano
DIRECTOR: Han Hyeong-mo
INTÉRPRETES: Kim Jeong-rim (Oh Seon-yeong), Park Am (Professor Jang Tae-yun), No Gyeong-hui (Choi Yun-ju), Joo Sun-tae (Baek Seon-saeng)
ARGUMENTO: El profesor universitario Jang Tae-yun y su esposa Oh Seon-yeong viven con su hijo Gyenog-su. Para ayudar a mejorar la situación financiera de la familia, Seon-yeong consigue trabajo en una tienda de estilo occidental. Un día, ella se encuentra con una vieja amiga de la escuela, Choi Yun-ju, con quien termina yendo a una fiesta de baile.
Yun-ju, que sostiene que las mujeres deben tener derechos económicos y que saben cómo divertirse, utiliza los fondos recaudados entre sus amigas para entrar en un negocio de contrabando de cosméticos. Por su parte, Seon-yeong se interesa por su joven vecino Shin Chun-ho y toma lecciones de baile con él. El profesor Jang se siente atraído por la joven mecanógrafa Park, a quien ha estado enseñando a escribir en coreano. Mientras tanto, el dueño de la tienda, Han Tae-seok, se acerca a Seon-yeong con intenciones ilícitas. (yojimbo/filmaffinity)
La filmoteca coreana ha renovado recientemente el canon cinematográfico nacional,"The most controversial film in Korean cinematic history, which made sensational waves throughout post-liberation society by portraying the transgressive sexuality of a college professor's wife and her advancement into the public sphere"
After liberation from Japanese rule, Korean society underwent rapid changes caused by modernization and the influx of capitalism and Western culture. Amid such changes, Madame Freedom caused huge waves through its depiction of women's sexuality and advancement into the public sphere. It was adapted from Jeong Bi-seok's popular serial novel Madame Freedom (Ja-yu bu-in), which took as its subject such topical issues of the time as the dancing fad, private money pools (known as "gye"in Korean), and indulgence in luxury. Due to the impoverished conditions of the period, women began to make actual inroads into the public realm aspart of the work force. No longer confined to the home, women became, on the one hand, objects of desire for men other than their own husbands and, on the other, agents of consumption and desire in their own right. As Shin Chun-ho's camera captures the moment when Oh Seon-yeong crosses the threshold of her home to go and find employment at the clothing store, the scene reveals what it means for a woman to venture into the public sphere. The film shows us how the patriarchal society of the time reacted to this change. Western commodities, described as "the very best,"and the mass culture introduced to Korea through American soldiers are both represented as something excessive that are attractive yet must be resisted. Westernization, modernization, and women's sexuality become mutually aligned as elements that threaten existing patriarchal values and cause social insecurity. Once Seon-yeong begins working at the clothing store and dressing in Western attire, she begins to actively express her desires. In other words, women's advancement into the public arena is directly associated with extravagance, uncritical Westernization, and sexual debauchery, and thus represented as that which must be punished. Choi Yun-ju, who most obviously flaunts her financial independence and sexual desire, is utterly destroyed by the film's end.
By contrast, as indicated by the movie's promotional copy at the time ("If you were Professor Jang Tae-yun, what decision would you make regarding your wife?"), the man retains his moral superiority by packaging his own adulterous position as a productive and spiritual relationship. This leads to the film's narrative conclusion, which is geared toward "re-taming" womeni.e. re-incorporating into the existing patriarchal structure those women who have infiltrated the public sphere and become agents of labor and consumption. Accordingly, Seon-yeong ultimately "repents her sins" and returns to the home, where her maternity is re-affirmed.
Nevertheless, Madam Freedom reveals at its depths an ambivalent sense of fascination and apprehension vis-a-vis modernity and female sexuality. It is this consideration that is prompting contemporary critics to re-evaluate Madame Freedom as a rare exception among films made in the social milieu of the 1950s for its active portrayal of women's sexual desire.
Besides such thematic aspects, Madame Freedom figures importantly in the technological development of Korean cinema. Madame Freedom was the first Korean movie to be shot using proper cranes and dollys. What made this possible was the fact that one of the partners at Samseong Film was a man who made machinery in Cheonggyecheon. Director Han Hyung-mo, who frequently went to Cheonggyecheon get his cameras repaired, persuaded a machine builder with an interest in producing movies to participate in the project. According to accounts, the new partner built the dolly and the crane himself in just one week, based on the sketches made by Han Hyung-mo. The dolly's wheels were reportedly converted from four helicopter wheels obtained through a U.S. military unit in Korea.
KOFA
colocando esta “Madame Freedom” como la primera obra maestra realizada en el país.
Es una película sorprendente. Plantea la influencia occidental en la evolución de la sociedad coreana, particularmente la liberalización sexual y económica de la mujer enfrentada a una tradición patriarcal. Pero los tiempos eran los que eran y, avanzado el metraje, te das cuenta de que el aparente enfoque feminista es en realidad todo lo contrario. De todas formas, dejando a un lado la resolución del conflicto, las cuestiones están ahí y no deja de ser muy interesante e innovador (y controvertido) su reflejo en la pantalla grande. Más allá del aspecto moralizante, el guión es buenísimo; la realización es menos brillante, demasiado literal, incapaz de aprovechar las múltiples connotaciones (citas-bailes-sexo) en aciertos de (elíptica) puesta en escena, ¡lo que habría hecho Lubitsch con un material así!, y con errores de bulto (como ese travelling final de ella, fantástico, interrumpido brusca e innecesariamente). Con todo, un melodrama merecidamente reputado y altamente recomendable.
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ed2k (VO en coreano)
Madame Freedom (1956).avi [1.37 Gb]
English subtitleshel escribió:Es cierto que, desde un punto de vista contemporáneo, esta peli chirría por sus clichés machistas, pero no mucho más que, por ejemplo, un Duvivier con sus diez mandamientos. Pero como todo tiene una dimensión cultural, si tenemos en cuenta el contexto en el que fue producida (con toque de queda y todo), podemos llegar a ser lo suficientemente bondadosos como para apreciar las cualidades de esta película, que las tiene, o simplemente para acercarnos sin prejuicios a un tipo de cine que antes no conocíamos, como es mi caso. Para todo ello, espero que os puedan ayudar, estimados compañeros:
Subtítulos propios a partir de los franceses:
http://www.subdivx.com/X6XNDAxODY5X-jay ... -1956.html
Madame Freedom (1956) eng.srt [67.1 Kb]
Sous-titres français
Madame Freedom (1956) fra.srt [74.2 Kb]
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