SYNOPSIS

A husband is jealous because his wife is a judge, an occupation high on the social ladder. His stepmother harasses the judge, using his jealousy against her. And his sister also has no intention to give peace to her sister-in-law. But the judge tries her best to do her two duties as a judge and as a wife.

PROGRAM NOTE

 A Woman Judge reflects on the life of a Jin-suk, a
 woman judge, to ask the question of whether it is
 possible for women to have a peaceful coexistence
 of a marriage and a career, as a good wife and as a
 competent judge. The most memorable part of the
 movie must be the words of Judge HEO Jin- suk, our
 protagonist. By stating that \"I am not a woman until I
 become a judge,\" \"Just because a woman has a job
 does not mean it will 100% result in the destruction
 of a good family or household,\" \"It is very important
 that women in Korea strive to work for the elevation
 of the status of women,\" HEO Jin-suk talks about the
 status of women in Korea from the perspective of a
 woman who has both a career and a family. Jin- suk\'s
 speech seems to reveal her own conflict, which is the
 universal, unsolvable conflict between private and
 public life that women experience that is repeatedly
 pointed out and expressed by Jin- suk.
 Jin-suk ends up solving the murder case, which
 involves the entire family members of three
 generations, by \'herself,\' using the \'law\' and in doing
 so redraws the boundaries of the status of \'women\'
 and stabilizes the family. The incidence and quick
 solution of the murder case that took place between
 relatives become a turning point for Jin-suk to firmly
 establish her position in the family as a wife, daughterin-
 law, sister-in-law and as a woman. However, the
 film\'s attempt to expand a family melodrama into a
 thriller genre seems out of place and incomplete, just
 like the social status of women who cannot have a
 peaceful harmony between career and family. There
 are some unreleased scenes of the film, but all of
 them are very probable of happening and therefore
 easy for the audience to predict, precisely because
 the dilemma that Jin-suk goes through as a woman is
 still ongoing for the women of today. [Sunah KIM]