The Real Aema

K-drama Aema has inspired me to research the Korean film industry in the 80s. Was there really so much nudity? What kind of films were popular at the time? How much was it impacted by censorship?

My focus will be on erotic films, "hostess melodramas" from the 70s and 80s. The era had more movies coming out, but this is more on theme with Aema. I only watched two episodes, but I was too curious to finish it before writing this blog, so my comparisons will come from what I already saw.

Have you enjoyed the drama? Maybe you've seen the original Madame Aema film?

The 1970s were not the best time for Korean films. The industry was in a severe recession, and control of laws and policies was not helping either.

That is why filmmakers produced films with a certain conventional system. Usually, it told the stories of women's ordeals, sacrifices for their family, and love problems. These films were called "hostess melodramas" and became popular in the mid-1970s. (Korea Journal)

What Happened That Night (1971), an erotic thriller (a rarity at the time), stars Kim Ji Mi and Yoon Jung Hee, one of the biggest actresses from that generation.

The story follows a sculptor, Shin Il, who returns to Korea after studying in France. His wife welcomes him warmly, but then refuses to sleep with him and begins behaving suspiciously. He follows her outings and witnesses her meeting with a strange man. While still in shock, Shin Il encounters a young woman and brings her to his studio. (Naver Blog)

It didn't garner that much attention even though the cast was popular at the time, but later films seem to follow similar struggles.

There was always a need for beauty in this industry, but with the rise of "hostess melodramas", your body was a lot more important. The actress, Kim Ja Ok, even joked on the show that the reason she got the role was because of her big chest. (Etoday)

She was in a film called Miss O's Apartment (1978). Miss Oh is a college student in deep poverty who needs to take care of her family, too. That is why she decided to become a hostess, as they earn good money.

But let's move on to the film I've seen: Do You Know Kotsuni? (1979)

Kotsuni is an innocent and naive country girl who works at a cafe in Seoul. After she experiences sexual harassment, she starts living with a wrestler, Sung Gu. However, it doesn't take long before she is degraded into a girl in a red light district. She meets an old man, Yun, who takes care of her. He dies soon, and she again falls into despair. Her first love, Bong Su, shows up, but she disappears alone. (Mydramalist)

I found this film on YouTube, without subtitles and skimmed some bits of it. In all honesty, the synopsis summarises the whole film (or at least the important parts), so I'm not sure if I recommend it. If you're curious, go ahead!

The film is not risqué or sexual, considering today's standards. Even that one scene from Squid Game is spicier. Some scenes get cut so abruptly, but it's due to censorship. (Let's be understandable)

However, the weird editing doesn't stop there. When Kotsuni becomes a hostess, there's a scene where she's talking with a client, and the camera is under the table. It gives us a very good view of their legs and whatever they're wearing below the waistline.

Not so good a view of their faces, though.

There is also a scene where Kotsuni tries to sleep with her now husband (who is old) and keeps calling him grandfather.

Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that he didn't want to have sex at the moment.

There are also scenes where you can clearly see the actress being sexualised. Kotsuni always ends up with a nightgown; she is dressed more revealingly than men in other scenes, too.

(Now, I'm thinking about all the dramas where they sleep in outdoor clothes, and that is even weirder.)

While looking at different films, searching for the ones I want to write about, I notice a weird pattern of women getting sexually assaulted. It probably comes with being a hostess, but some of the films and their inclusion are questionable.

One of the examples is Rainfall at Nighttime (1979). The premise is that the female protagonist falls in love with her rapists. To add to that, she has a boyfriend but now is conflicted about who to stay with. Will it be a nice guy, aka her boyfriend or a guy who should be in jail for raping her?

I'm sorry the 'bad boy' has a grandmother who is sick, and he's poor. We have to forgive him!

I'm happy to say it wasn't a blockbuster film at the time, but still, 10000+ people went to see it. Makes me want to question them, but maybe they were curious about the dumb storyline.

As we can see, even before Aema hit the big screen, these erotic melodramas could be seen on the big screen. Even if the film didn't have any sexual scenes in it, the posters were not afraid to be suggestive of it.

The poster featuring a woman in a white nightgown (Magnificent Experience, 1980) has probably nothing to do with it. The premise is that the female protagonist has a former classmate who acts like her. The imposter is taking revenge on men who blindly admire college girls.

Okay, maybe there CAN be something... A better example would be The Happiness of an Unhappy Woman (1979). This is the poster with a woman sitting on a chair.

The woman gets into a car accident and becomes paralysed. There is a whole divorce drama, with her wanting it and the husband disagreeing... I'm just not sure why the poster had to have a picture of them in bed.

It's understandable, but was it really necessary to gather people to watch your film?

"In the 1980s, the notorious '3S' Policy - which stands for sex, screen and sports - was implemented as a major entertainment in society to turn people's interest away from politics." (Korea Times)

The 80s were truly a new time: curfew was lifted, the economy started to boom as places closed at a later time, and fewer people were getting detained (Korea Herald). The ban on sexual depictions in Korean films was also not as restrictive anymore.

This has helped Madame Aema become a big success. It sparked a boom in erotica in the 1980s Korean film industry. It also became a series consisting of 15 films and 16 video releases. (Naver Blog)

Ae Ma, a wealthy housewife in her 30s, finds herself constantly lonely when her husband, Hyeong Woo, frequently stays out late on business. One day, when he's imprisoned for manslaughter, she visits him. There, she meets a younger man and has a reunion with an old lover.

In the drama, the director says that he wants to show female pleasure.

It is done in a real movie, but through voyeuristic eyes. The camera closes up on Aema's face, her parted lips and hazy eyes. In the final scenes, Ae Ma gets soaked as it is raining and torn by the tree branches, particularly exposing her body. Then the camera alternates between close-ups of these parts, peering up her skirt. (KMDb)

Another thing that happens with the film, just like in the drama, is the title. Due to censorship, they almost had to rename it, but they found a loophole by calling it a 'wife who loves marijuana'.

This has surprised me quite a bit. Knowing the sentiment in Korea about weed now, it's shocking how they allowed it to be named like that.

However, there are also some differences. The female lead in the movie already had some experience as a supporting actress in a few movies. Yes, Madame Aema was a breakthrough film, but it also branded her as an erotic actress for the rest of her career.

(I wonder what her thoughts are of Aema, the drama, but it shouldn't be viewed that badly, as she appears in the 6th episode.)

As mentioned, influence after the film was rampant in the Korean film industry. Series like Red Cherry, Wild Strawberry were produced one after another.

There were also similar films produced, for example, Between the Knees (1984), which reached great success by becoming the second most-watched film that year.

Prostitution (1988) also followed Aema's route and released a series alongside the film. The title and content are incredibly provocative, but the film passed the censorship review process without a hitch because it was held during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The film also resonated with a lot of people at the time. (Namuwiki)

It was surprising to see Na Young Hee as the main protagonist of the film. She's now more known for her roles as an evil mother-in-law or similar.

Fun fact: this film was mentioned in "Reply 1988" second episode. Nothing spectacular, just three guys from the group wanted to see the movie and the posters were shown.

On one side, we see a boom in movies, art, and something that a lot of people get excited about. On the other side, it meant that actresses barely (if any) had a say in how much they wanted to expose themselves.

Ahn So Young, Seon Woo Il Lan, Yoo Hye Ri, Kim Bu Seon and more were known for their roles in erotic movies and were only deemed for that. I don't think all of them hated it. For example, Seon Woo Il Lan, even decades later, decided to be in a more sexual movie (Tummy).

There are some, like Kim Bu Seon, who started her career in Madame Aema 3, but hate being referred to as an erotic actress. At first, she didn't even want to be an actress, as her career began as a model. She had no experience in acting, but that was not a problem when directors chose solely based on their looks and body types.

Now she's more involved with the political world rather than the film industry.

While doing the research, I was surprised to see so many films lean into sexual things. I'm not an avid film watcher, but if you watched K-dramas in the 2000s or 2010s, you probably heard about fish kiss and criticism for kissing scenes.

The films show a completely different side of it. Of course, not to the point we can see sex scenes now, but I can imagine it was pretty scandalous back then. A bit of a boob there, some facial expressions and anything to sexualise women.

My biggest wonder still stays... How much say did the actresses have in this? How did they view these films?

Today, we have intimacy coordinators at the scene, but back then, it was the wild, wild west. Korea, in this case.

When I watch more of Aema, I might share more of the things I find that were similar/opposite to the real world on Tumblr or X!