"Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982" Review

Released on October 23 of this year, “Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982” is the movie adaptation of the best-seller of the same name written by Jo Nam-Joo. This movie directed by Kim Do-Young features several episodes of discrimination that Ji-Young faces as a daughter, as a young mom, and as a women in the patriarchal Korean society. In order to raise her daughter, she has quit the job that she loved and had studied for, and she is now living a more than ordinary life as a stay-at-home mom. Her name “Kim Ji-Young”, that is extremely common for women of her age, illustrates her situation that is anchored way too much in the norms.

Although making an adaptation of such a controversial book was a pure challenge given all the venomous critics that the book had received, the director did it with flying colours.

Kim Ji-Young faces discrimination after her pregnancy. She has to deal with discrimination inside her own family due to her mother-in-law who doesn’t allow her to go back to work and her father adoring her brother just because he is a male. She also suffers from social pressure during national holidays when she has to cook for hours for all the family while the men are only watching TV or chitchatting between them. All those subjects need to be talked about. She is sadly the Korean woman of today, but will she be the one of tomorrow? Thanks to the release of this movie the vivid discussions and debates that have already taken place when the book came out have been revived. It is by talking about the problems that things can change.

Just like in any other adaptation, some episodes of the struggles she has to face have been waved aside because it is too difficult in two hours to put on screen all of what the novelist wrote.

There is nothing really shocking nor surprising at the end of the movie, so we end up questioning ourselves. Korea is changing so fast in so many ways, for better and for worse. Is there a hope for a rapid change in the fast changing Korean Society? Several personalities have given public support to the book such as Girls’ Generation’s Choi Soo-Young and Irene of Red Velvet, and they have been attacked and cyberbullied for that. Some anti-feminists announced that they would boycott the film but the movie has already made way more than 1 million entries. By closing their eyes, the situation will not get better in any way for anyone. People have to open their eyes and open them wide to get through it. But is Korea ready for the change?

To watch the teaser click here.

★★★★★