Transformation of the Image of Women in the Cinema of the Republic of Korea in the Context of the Feminist Movement in 21st Century

The history of South Korean cinema dates to the first half of the 20th century. The works of directors of the Republic of Korea in recent decades have been gaining popularity and gaining international recognition at prestigious film awards. Also, the feminist movement in South Korea has received a new round of development in the last decade. This work focuses on the history of the female image in the cinema of the Republic of Korea. It analyzes various research papers on feminism and cinema of the Republic of Korea. Also, there is a detailed analysis of the female characters of three films that played an important role in the development of South Korean female cinema. This paper concludes that under the influence of various social, political, and economic changes in the country, the image of women in films is also constantly changing. The study identified typical female images, genres in which women are most often represented and the reasons why certain changes occurred in the representation of women on the screen. Keywords: feminism, gender, women’s representation, Korean cinema, South Korea, "Poetry", "Sunny", "Kim Ji-Young: Born 1982"