1950s Korean Movies

Lee Shin-ja is a young widow, subject to the prejudices against her position in society. Trying to provide for her daughter as well as find love, Lee becomes entangled in the lives of her late husband's friend, his wife, and her lover.

Would-be feminist Yoanna, running her own company, is insulted in a phone booth by a stranger named Yong-ho. While searching for a job, Yong-ho applies to a magazine named 'The Modern Woman,' not knowing that the company's boss is in fact Yoanna. She hires him with the intention of paying back the humiliation she received. But his masculine attitude captivates her and she ends up marrying him. She resigns her post and becomes a housekeeper, handing over the company to her husband.

In the latter years of the Korean Empire, Lee In Hwa, disguises herself as a man so she can join a group of young men determined to overthrow the colonial government. They fight together with young national activists presided by Hwal Min and supported by Daewon-gun, the Prince Regent, against Min Gyeom Ho and his peers. But Min and his team perform a surprise attack on Hwal Min and his peers.

A nobleman bribes a maidservant to gain access to the palace and poison the crown prince. Another noble, loyal to the royal family, learns the of the plot and must learn the identity of the would-be assassin before he can succeed in throwing the country into chaos.

Oh starts working at a boutique to help her make a living. Professor Jang begins dating the typist Miss Park, but decides to break up with her to protect her family. Han's wife anonymously sends a letter to Jang to reveal Oh's affair.

In post-Korean War Seoul, a young man from the countryside discovers that his older brother has become romantically involved in a prostitute and has no intentions of returning home.

When he loses his sight during one of the battles of the Korean War, Geon-yeong(Choe Hyeon) is taken to a military hospital. There he meets a nursing officer named Hye-yeong(Hwang Yui-hui), but still misses Soon-hui in his hometown. When Geon-yeong's mother donates one of her eyes to him, he is no longer blind.

A group of communist guerillas encounter jealousy and rivalry among themselves because of the presence of the female compatriot while one of their members plots to desert their band.

The son of a freedom fighter, Sang-hun is a member of an anti-Japanese resistance group called "Seongjinhoe," composed of students who share a dedication to the cause of liberation. Their spiritual guide is a teacher named Song Un-in. One day, Yeong-ae, whose brother is a detective in the Japanese police force charged with monitoring independence movements, joins their group. Following a series of sporadic incidents, the students gather one night to resolve on an uprising, but are discovered by the police. Young-ae is wrongfully accused of betraying their plans, but she risks her life in order to allow the group members to escape. The morning after, the students of Gwangju rise up against the Japanese government.

Choi Mun-seon (Seong So-min), a painter who lives alone on a beach, rescues drowning In-sun (Kim Ui-hyang). In-sun, a stewardess from Seoul, has more than platonic feelings for him, but he has no special feelings for her.Mun-seon meets Yun Myeong-hee who lived in his neighborhood 15 years ago. In order to help Myeong-hee's brother, Myeong-geun (Hyeon Sang-seob), who works for a magazine company, Mun-seon goes to Seoul. Myeong-hee and Mun-seon fall in love with each other. When In-sun meets Mun-seon in Seoul, she confesses her love for him, but he turns it down in a roundabout way.

The old Korean folktale, 'Heungbu and Nolbu' is brought alive on the screen in this film that shows the lead character as a marionette. Nolbu is the elder brother and he is slimy and greedy. In his greed, he throws his little brother, Heungbu, out of home to stake claim on all the money and belongings their father left for them. Heungbu is an idealist but pained by the events that have taken place. He helps Swallow by curing his broken leg and as a return favour, Swallow gives him a gourd seed. He plant the seeds and after sometime, gold, silver and gems start coming out of the plant, giving Heungbu everything he deserves. It does not go down well with Nolbu.

The Money is about a poor farmer whose bid for a better life ends up bringing calamity to his family. At the urging of loan shark Eok Jo (Choi Nam Hyun), Bong Su (Kim Seung Ho) sells his cows to start a business but he loses everything to a conman (No Kyung Hee). Bong Su accidentally kills Eok Jo in a fight and takes his money, and the police trace the crime back to Bong Su's son.

Master Maeng is very proud that an influential family will soon be his esteemed in-laws when his loving daughter, Mi-yeon, marries their son. A few days before the wedding Maeng hears a rumor that his future son-in-law has a cripple leg. Regretting that he can't give his lovely daughter to a cripple, he decides to marry his maid to him instead. Unexpectedly the future son-in-law shows up at the wedding hall and he is not a cripple, but a healthy and handsome youth. Feeling embarrassed, there is no way but to wed the maid to him. The Wedding Day is a recreation of A Happy Day of Jinsa Maeng, a comical play by Oh Yeong Jin. The first Korean film to win an international film award, the Best Comedy Award at the 1957 edition of the Asian Film Festival (now Asia Pacific Film Festival).

Jang-hwa and Hong-ryeon, the daughters of Bae the official governor, die of their stepmother's unfair maltreatment. Jang-hwa's ghost appears in front of a district judge every night begging for clarification of their deaths. The district judge lets the stepmother confess the cause of Jang-hwa's death, and then punishes her. It clears all enmity.

Adada's poor husband suddenly strikes it rich. He changes his hovel for a beautiful home, but his character changes as well. He becomes overly proud and shows off his wealth. Adada, despising the money and what it has done to her husband, throws their savings into the river

Leaving prison in hopes of reuniting with his lover, a man finds instead that she has married his childhood rival, a now-crooked businessman.

It is a dramatization about Major Kim Man-il's service during the Korean War. The Korean forces dispatch two military units to defend the Baeti Heights led by Kim. Although it is hard to do so, Kim and his senior, Kim Mu-cheol (Choe Bong), and other soldiers do their best. Kim even risks his life to save his juniors, but many die as the enemy forces approach. Meanwhile, Lee Kang-no (Yun Il-bong), a communications officer, reads a letter from his wife - missing her and his daughter. Encouraged by it, Lee risks his life to make successful communication between his military unit and the headquarters. His unit wins. Commander Kim Man-su gathers a small number of his subordinates because many had died, and encourages them to do their best toward the enemy off.

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A man accused of embezzlement starts a life as first a vagabound and later a thief. He feels he is unable to return to his family and home.

A man named Jin-gu, fleeing Seoul after accidentally committing murder while defending himself, is torn between escaping with his lover, Jeong-ae, and his growing entanglement in a criminal conspiracy. After a series of dangerous encounters and close calls with the police, Jin-gu desperately seeks Jeong-ae, only to find her being tailed by detectives. As their attempts to reunite are continuously thwarted, Jin-gu's journey reflects not only his personal guilt but also the tragic fate of those, like Jeong-ae, caught in circumstances beyond their control. In the end, Jin-gu faces the consequences of his actions, while Jeong-ae silently endures the weight of their doomed love.

After the woman who nearly killed her is brought to trial, Eun-hie finds that she must take the stand to give evidence. However, the defense attempts to turn the tables on her by revealing her sordid past and trying to make it seem as if she deserved what happened to her.

At the end of the Joseon Dynasty, shortly after the Eulsa Treaty has been forced to be concluded by Ito Hirobumi and the pro-Japanese courtiers, Japan pressures King Gojong to step down from the throne. Meanwhile, An Jung-geun, who is cultivating men of ability at Samheung school, is deeply impressed by a speech made by An Chang-ho, and heads for Russia to volunteer the army fighting for independence of the country. As both a lieutenant general of the Korean militia and a commander of the Korean expeditionary force in Manchuria, he carries on the independence movement in defiance of Japanese coercion.

The life of Lee Seung-man, a freedom fighter who struggled to liberate Korea from Japanese rule.

Lee Suk-hui (Choe Eun-hui) lost her husband to the Korean War eight years ago. She runs a dressmaking shop that has fallen into debt. When Kim Sang-gyu (Kim Jin-gyu), the executive director of a publishing company, helps her pay off debts, she falls in love with him. He, however, is engaged to the daughter of his boss, Ok-ju (Do Geum-bong). His sister (Ju Jeung-nyeo) pushes him to marry the boss's daughter, hoping that will bring him rapid success. Meanwhile, Suk-hui's grown-up daughter Gyeong-hui, wanting her mother to be happy, urges her mother to marry Sang-gyu, but Suk-hui vacillates between social mores and her own happiness. Even though she and Sang-gyu truly love each other, she decides to leave him and heads for her country home after selling her house in Seoul. Hearing the news, he who is ill in bed hurries to Seoul station, but it is too late. All he can do is just to stand on the platform and to watch her train pulling away.

Dr. Nam, in his will, requests that his eldest daughter, Jeong-hui(Choe Eun-hui), marry a painter named Dong-su (Nam Gung-won). Jeong-hui is at risk of losing her house due to her father's debt, and a young physician Sun-cheol (Kim Seok-hun) who received his college education with the financial support of Dr. Nam, helps her by selling his own house. Despite his love for her, Sun-cheol cannot express his feelings because he knows of the request in her father's will. When Jeong-hui looks for a job to support her family, Bang, whom Dr. Nam once cured, offers her a position of saloon madam. Meanwhile, her younger sister Myeong-hui (Choe Ji-hui) promises Dong-su her hand in marriage. Jeong-hui, now running the saloon, wishes them happiness. It is only when she gets a proposal from Bang and decides to accept it that Sun-cheol confesses his love for her. Moved by Sun-cheol's true affection for her, Bang gives her up, and Sun-cheol and Jeong-hui exchange vows of marriage.

Worldy renowned for his masterpiece The Housemaid (1960), Kim Ki-young debuts with his first short film I Am a Truck (1953), which was sponsored by UN and made a year after the armistice of the Korean War. This film is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a soon-to-be powerful auteur and influential filmmaker in the post-war Korean cinema, if not the whole history of Korean cinema.

I Joong-saeng (Kim Seung-ho), a sign company president who believes power and money can solve anything, stages a fake suicide to escape legal troubles from fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion, but ultimately fails and faces a tragic downfall.

No overview available

A young Buddhist monk, Jo Sin, is attracted to Tae-su's daughter, Dal-lye. He hopes to marry her, but she becomes Mo-rye Hwa-rang's wife. One day she secretly leaves the temple and runs away with Jo Sin. Hwa-rang finds out about it and is ready to take revenge on him. Jo Sin shouts out loud and realizes that he had just had a dream.

A housemaid becomes pregnant by her employer's husband and she flees to the countryside to raise her daughter on her own.

A newspaper reporter becomes a witness to a murder and finds himself relentlessly pursued by the killer.

The rivalry between two families prevents budding love from being realized in the younger generation.

An elderly bell maker reminisces about his life filled with tragedy.

A medical doctor, Ko, has three daughters. The first daughter, Suk-hee, confesses her past when her husband asks her to forgive his past, on the first night of their honeymoon. When he breaks off the marriage and goes to America, Suk-hee confines herself to her home for three years.

The film is a historical melodrama about a high government official who wants to marry a woman who is engaged to marry another man.

This film is about of the life of the young patriotic martyr Yu Gwan-sun, who fought for the liberation of her country during the Independence Movement in 1919. As the Independence Movement becomes more and more intense among Korean students, the Japanese authorities order schools closed temporarily. Yu Gwan-sun (Do Geum-bong) persuades her neighbors to join the national movement, and continues her aggressive struggle against Japanese rule. An independent campaign at Aunae, a market site, is successful with the passionate participation of many people. She is arrested by the Japanese police for leading the campaign and has to endure horrible tortures. But she never gives up her fight, encouraging her cell mates to participate in the movement. She is finally taken to an underground room by the Japanese police and murdered.

Upon hearing that her fiance has been killed in battle, a woman makes her way to the Park Pagoda to seek comfort from the monument. There she becomes acquainted with Henry Jang, a Korean-American whom she eventually marries. There is no happy ending for the two, however, because her fiance shows up alive and well, but bitter over his lover's fickle nature

A young man is in love with a waitress, but his father opposes their relationship. The father approaches the waitress telling her that if she truly loved his son, she would abandon him. She submits to the father's wish, though she is dying from tuberculosis.

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Myeong-ho (Hwang Hae), a middle school teacher who had grown up in poverty, and Bu-nam (Yang Hun), the first son of the president of a trading company, attend the same university. A doctor suggests that Bu-nam, who is sick due to overeating, and Myeong-ho, who suffers from malnutrition, should switch life styles for two weeks. While living in each other's house, they fall in love with each other's younger sister and get married at a joint wedding ceremony.