Mother and a Guest (1961)

"Once you have your hair cut, you'll change your old worldview"

Mother and a Guest showed the cultural crossroads Korean widows faced in 1960. The small town, how people dressed, and the customs were in a state of flux. Much of the film was narrated by the kindergartener and the adults were seen through her eyes. She didn’t understand them and I can’t say that I did either.

Lee Kyung Sook and her six-year-old daughter Ok Hee live with her mother-in-law. Her husband died before Ok Hee was born. Kyung Sook wears her white widow’s weeds and chignon, never looks men in the eye, and is the epitome of demure. She clings to her widow’s integrity by not remarrying. Trouble develops when they take in Han Sun Ho as a boarder. Ok Hee is immediately taken with the soft-spoken artist and follows him around like a puppy. Could a romance develop between the widow and the artist when they are almost never in the same room and almost never speak? Well, that’s the question.

Throughout the film widows and widowers were shown remarrying and living happy lives. The old taboo was no longer enforced. Lee has been a widow since she was twenty-one and seemed relegated to forever being alone except for her daughter. Her wants and desires were irrelevant as well as her daughter’s. There could be no laughter and she’d abandoned her music. This film was supposed to be a melodramatic tearjerker, but the main characters inability to communicate was frustrating and at times infuriating. I was far more invested in the maid’s story or even the hairdresser’s.

Mother and the Guest was a snapshot of changing mores in South Korea after the war. It also showed the stranglehold on women’s virtue and filial obligations that did not loosen easily.

12 June 2025

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