About This Film
“A College Woman's Confession” despite its feminist, patriarchy-slamming narrative, became a big hit in Korea in 1958, particularly since women swarmed to watch a movie, which, apart from the aforementioned elements, also entailed hard-core melodrama. Nevertheless, the result was quite positive for Shin Sang-ok, as this was the film that established his career.
Synopsis
Choi So-yeong is a university student majoring in law, whose studies are supported by her grandmother. In a scene that indicates the melodramatic/feminist premises of the movie, the film opens with the funeral of the grandmother, and the subsequent despair of the orphaned So-yeong, who has no clue on how she will manage to continue supporting her studies and herself. As her rent is overdue, with her landlady not missing any chance to remind her of the fact, So-yeong finds herself under an “indecent proposal” from her husband, who suggests that she offers other services instead of rent. Her situation becomes even more desperate, when something similar happens at her first job interview, which ends with a slap and her running away.
The only one who supports her is a friend, Hee-sook, an aspiring novelist who has come across a rather unusual diary written by a young woman who has since died. The entries reveal that a powerful politician, Choi Rim, has a daughter with a woman he knew before his current wife, who has, however, disappeared completely, leaving him in the dark about her identity. Hee-sook suggests to So-yeong to pose as his daughter to change her life completely. The unlucky girl dismisses the notion, but as her situation becomes more and more dire, the option becomes more and more and attractive.
