Coupang Play / "The Girl On A Bulldozer" Movie / tvN
If you've been on Filmtok for any amount of time now, you could not have missed the surge of female rage edits that are going viral left and right. Female rage is defined by Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill as women โhaving a momentโ, purging their anger unabashedly sans inhibition and retaliating against abuse that they have been subject to, whether that be in terms of gender, race, age, class, sexuality, or otherwise.
Female rage is both personal and also deeply political, with a long history in popular culture and very real social import. Even in the age we live in, cultural standards dictate that women be associated with gentleness and nonviolence. Angry women are often called to let go of their anger because it is "inappropriate" and "disruptive",ย and surely there are better ways to put an end to their oppression. This is what feminist scholar Amia Srinivasan calls "affective injustice", which in turn pathologizes, dismisses, belittles, and patronizes women's anger. With female rage becoming a TikTok trend has come the awareness of this concept on a global scale, opening up more accessible discussions about feminism in film and TV that are not limited to academia.
With that said, in this article, we're looking into some of the most celebrated representations of female rage in Korean films and dramas that subvert gendered stereotypes through complex female characters.
Objectively, the best place to start would be Park ChanWook's "Lady Vengeance", starring Lee YoungAe - as Lee GeumJa, the perfect anti-heroine. "Lady Vengeance" is widely regarded as the third and final
