10 Korean films make 'Bechdel Choice 10' list for promoting gender equality

The Directors Guild of Korea (DGK) announced 10 Korean films that made it to the "Bechdel Choice 10” that helped promote gender equality in the Korean film industry among films that were released last year until the first half of this year on Wednesday.

The Bechdel test, named after American female cartoonist Alison Bechdel, was made in 1985 and has become the basis for assessing how frequent leading women appear in films. To pass the test, at least two named female characters have to appear in the movie, and they have to talk about a subject not related to male characters.

The selected works are "Kim Ji-young: Born 1982,” (2019), "Maggie" (2019), "Another Child" (2019), "House of Hummingbird" (2019), "Our Body” (2019), "The House of Us” (2019), "Moonlit Winter" (2019), "Lucky Chan-sil” (2019), "Baseball Girl" (2019) and "A French Woman" (2020).

DGK also selected individuals who contributed to gender equality — director of "House of Hummingbird" Kim Bo-ra, scriptwriters of "Another Child" Lee Bo-ram and Kim Yoon-seok, actor of "Moonlit Winter" Kim Hee-ae and the CEO of ATO, the producing company of "The House of Us," Kim Ji-hye.

DGK will hold a Bechdel Day 2020 from Sept. 1 to 7, a week of gender equality, to encourage Korean filmmakers to produce films that capture both gender’s voices.

BY KIM YEON-AH [kim.yeonah@joongang.co.kr]