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Promises
Movie

Promises

1975 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

Mild-mannered and modest Sook-young looks like your usual middle-aged woman, but happens to be a man-killing murderess. On a train trip to Mokpo, she remembers an earlier trip as a prisoner on furlough accompanied by a menacing but kind butch female guard. On the train they meet Hoon, a young man who falls for Sook-young. The guard lets them be alone at a bizarre marriage in a hill-top graveyard.

Overall Series Review

Promises (Yukcheui yaksok) is a 1975 South Korean melodrama that serves as a dark critique of the brutal social costs of industrialization and the subjugation of women in contemporary Korean society. The plot follows Sook-young, a convicted murderess, on a train trip where she recalls her past life of abuse and her brief, redemptive encounter with a kind man, Hoon, while on prison furlough. The film is a disturbing, blunt, and highly stylized portrayal of toxic masculinity, where Sook-young is relentlessly exploited and told her only worth is through her body. While the film condemns the exploitation, the underlying narrative ultimately promotes a deeply traditional and anti-feminist message, suggesting the protagonist's emotional frigidity and violence are a result of her refusal to embrace the "natural duties" of a woman, with her salvation lying in a good man and motherhood. This conservative framing places the film firmly outside the modern 'woke' framework.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The film’s central conflict is an uncompromising critique of class and gender-based oppression in 1970s Korean society. Sook-young's tragic arc is defined by the systemic exploitation and abuse she suffers from men, not by an intersectional lens or the vilification of "whiteness." The conflict is a localized social commentary on the misogyny of the home culture, not a universal lecture on privilege or systemic oppression in the Western sense.

Oikophobia3/10

The narrative's hostility is directed at the corrupt and abusive social systems within modernizing South Korea that enable the exploitation of women. It is a specific social commentary on the moral decay caused by ruthless capitalism and conservative gender norms. It is not a broad critique of 'Western civilization' or its core institutions, thus it does not meet the definition of civilizational self-hatred.

Feminism2/10

The protagonist, Sook-young, is a victim of relentless abuse and exploitation, which directly contradicts the "Girl Boss" or "Mary Sue" trope. The film, while depicting widespread toxic masculinity, ultimately insists that Sook-young's salvation lies in a 'nice' man and fulfilling her 'natural duties' as a woman, with the anti-natalist idea of motherhood being a 'prison' being directly contradicted by the film’s moral resolution, which frames child-raising as the only point of a woman’s life.

LGBTQ+4/10

The inclusion of a prominent, supportive character described as a "menacing but kind butch female guard" represents a non-normative gender presentation. This character provides emotional support and agency to the victim protagonist, serving as a foil to the toxic heterosexual male world. While there is no explicit 'queer theory' lecture, the sympathetic centering of a masculine female character who challenges gender presentation norms pushes the score beyond a simple 'normative structure.'

Anti-Theism1/10

There is no evidence of anti-theistic themes, such as hostility toward traditional religion or the depiction of Christian characters as bigots. The morality of the film is focused on objective right and wrong concerning interpersonal abuse and betrayal, not on moral relativism. The bizarre marriage plot point is a surreal metaphor for the protagonist's longing for human connection and a new life, not a critique of the spiritual realm.