Postwar Korean cinema came into full bloom with two box-office hits that helped to build an initial cottage film industry: Yi Gyu-hwan's "Chunhyangjeon" (The Tale of Chunhyang, 1955), the well-known Confucian narrative about love and womanly devotion, and Han Hyeong-mo's "Jayubuin" (Madame Freedom, 1956), a film about the love affair of a Westernized modern woman. The films of this period were thematically preoccupied with the shifting identities of women and gender relations. Melodrama films were of crucial significance in this regard. From the mid-1950s to late 1960s, the films that targeted female audiences were pejoratively called "rubber shoes," referring to woman of lower class, or "tearjerkers."

This "melo" (drama) genre functioned as a catharsis of sorts for women's repressive experiences under Confucian patriarchy and provided the release of woman's "han" (pent-up grief). Shin Sang-ok's "The Houseguest and Mother" (Sarangbang sonnimgwa eomeoni, 1961) and Jeong So-yeong's "Bitter But Once Again," (Miwodo dasi hanbeon, 1968) are prime examples of the genre.

The Houseguest and Mother, an adaptation of a well-known novella by Ju Yo-seop, illustrates the Korean filmmaker's persistent thematic interest in women. Set in the 1920s, the film explores the delicate subject-matter of the role of the widow in Korean culture. Two generations of widows live in a household: the heroine (Choe Eun-hui) with her daughter and her mother-in-law. When a painter friend of the heroine's late husband comes to town, the two women offer him lodging in their home. A mutual attraction develops between the heroine and the painter; however, instead of allowing herself to consummate her passion, the heroine instead withdraws from the relationship, accepting the traditional Confucian precepts against remarriage. The film suggests a critical view of her choice and the Confucian world-view which encouraged her to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of an antiquated custom.

While "The Houseguest and Mother" employed rather indirect means of raising the issue of women's remarriage, Pak Nam-ok's "The Widow" (Mimang-in, 1953), the first feature length film made by a woman filmmaker, connects this custom to other aspects of Korean traditional life, including women's economic dependence, motherhood and female sexuality.

"Madame Freedom" was a huge box-office hit when it was released. Based on a newspaper serial novel, it instigated a heated controversy among Korean intellectuals because of its scandalous representation of a professor's wife. From the perspective of the Korean film industry, however, it played a crucial role in developing Korean cinema. In striking contrast to the widow character in "The Houseguest and Mother," the wife and mother character in "Madame Freedom" momentarily enjoys freedom outside home. Woman's sexual freedom, here linked to American consumer culture, also plays the sub-plot of the Madame Freedom figure. In its attempt to come to terms with modernity, Korean cinema has focused on representations of modern female figures, and in particular, their sexuality, which are depicted as both dangerous and desirable. On the other hand, films such as "The Stray Bullet" (Obaltan, Yu Hyeon-mok, 1961), "Barefoot Youth" (Maenbarui cheongchun, Kim Gi-deok, 1964) and "The Coachman" (Mabu, Kang Dae-jin, 1961) investigated the anxiety of the marginalized and disempowered urban men during the socially unstable period of the 1960s.