Bechdel Day 2025, a comprehensive two-day festival celebrating gender equality in Korean entertainment, will take place in Seoul this weekend during Korea's Gender Equality Week, which runs from Monday through Sunday. Organized by the Directors Guild of Korea, this sixth annual event evaluates how well Korean films and television series represent women and other marginalized groups.
The festival honors American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, whose groundbreaking Bechdel Test from the 1980s exposed the lack of meaningful female narratives in media. Since its Korean launch in 2020, Bechdel Day has evolved into a major annual program featuring awards ceremonies and critical discussions about gender representation in Korean entertainment. The event applies Bechdel's original three criteria – two named female characters talking to each other about something other than a man – plus four additional standards including female participation in key production roles and the elimination of discriminatory portrayals of women and minorities.
The Korean entertainment landscape shows mixed progress in gender representation, according to festival organizers. Independent cinema continues producing bold and diverse content, while commercial films have experienced some setbacks in recent years after previously benefiting from female-led blockbusters before the pandemic. "Through events like this, we want not only to encourage better practices in the industry but also to discover and highlight the creators and works that are already leading the way," explained film journalist and festival programmer Lee Hwa-jung.
However, Korean drama series tell a dramatically different story. The explosion of streaming platforms and their original content has introduced audiences to female characters that completely break away from traditional stereotypes. These women are bold, ambitious, and complex, embodying traits historically reserved for male protagonists, and viewers have responded enthusiastically to this transformation. "It's been heartening to see not just the characters themselves, but also the audiences' strong response to them," Lee observed.
This year's main attraction is the Bechdelian Talk, a live discussion featuring creators behind the Bechdel Choice selections. Rather than a simple awards ceremony, this session provides an honest forum where filmmakers and showrunners discuss their efforts to eliminate bias from their storytelling, the obstacles they faced when developing gender-equal narratives, and their strategies for representing women and minority voices within an industry often limited by conservative structures and market pressures.
A special program titled "Gender Equality in Competitive Spirit" expands the conversation beyond scripted content into variety entertainment. Producers and cast members from popular reality shows featuring all-female casts will discuss how women's stories and competitive nature are being redefined in spaces once considered exclusively male territory. "In the past, when women openly expressed their ambitions or fiercely fought to win, such behavior was often cast in a negative light and the media tended to restrict these portrayals," Lee explained.
This shift is evident in shows like "Street Woman Fighter," a survival reality program where all-female dance crews compete for supremacy; "Kick a Goal," which follows female celebrity teams battling on soccer fields; and "Iron Girls," where women stars train and fight in boxing rings. These programs have become full-fledged series receiving tremendous audience support, featuring women who speak out, assert themselves, and channel their energy without hesitation, whether scoring goals, boxing, or dancing with complete commitment.
The significance of this transformation extends far beyond individual shows, creating a ripple effect throughout storytelling. "If mainstream variety programs can now embrace women who are bold, competitive and unapologetically expressive, then surely scripted dramas and films can follow," Lee noted. "Writers and directors gain more space to create female characters who pursue their desires with the same drive, and audiences, having already welcomed these images on unscripted TV, are ready to receive them in fictional narratives as well."
The Bechdel Day committee emphasizes that the festival extends beyond simply checking criteria within stories themselves. Each year, the event assesses not only on-screen gender representation but also examines representation behind the camera. In earlier decades, men overwhelmingly dominated production roles, so incorporating female participation among main staff into the enhanced Bechdel Test created a framework for evaluating whether women contribute equitably throughout the creation process.
"Directors have told us that when they apply the expanded test, they start asking questions like, 'How balanced is my cast of characters?' and 'How equitably am I representing men and women?' They rethink whether they've unconsciously slipped discriminatory or hostile language into dialogue," Lee explained. "That kind of reflection – both creative and ethical – is one of the most meaningful legacies of Bechdel Day."
This year's Bechdel Choice 10 selections in the Series category include "Good Partner," "Miss Night and Day," "Our Unwritten Seoul," "Friendly Rivalry," "The Tale of Lady Ok," "Doubt," "Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born," "A Virtuous Business," and "Hyper Knife." The Bechdelian Awards recognized director Jung Ji-in for "Jeongnyeon," writer Park Ji-sook for "The Tale of Lady Ok," actor Park Bo-young for "Our Unwritten Seoul," and the producers of "A Virtuous Business."
Park Bo-young, praised for her dual role as twins Mi-rae and Mi-ji in "Our Unwritten Seoul," explained her attraction to characters who control their own destiny rather than depending on others. "Although the twins thought they understood each other well, they actually did not know each other deeply. I was attracted to the characters because they do not lean on anyone else for their problems, but instead lead their lives through independent and proactive choices," she said.
The 2025 Bechdel Choice 10 for films includes "Dark Nuns," "Blesser," "Concerning My Daughter," "Lucky," "Apartment," "Revolver," "Victory," "My Best, Your Least," "The Old Woman with the Knife," "Hi-Five," and "Because I Hate Korea." Actor Lee Hye-young received the Bechdelian Award in the film category for her role as Hornclaw, a legendary killer in her 60s, in "The Old Woman with the Knife," which subverted the traditionally male-dominated noir action genre through a female perspective.
"The character Hornclaw is not marginalized or doubted for her abilities like typical elderly figures in films. Instead, she carries a powerful presence rooted in the resilience of a survivor and the depth of her past life," Lee said. "While the character might be teased for her age, she never faces unfair treatment simply for being a woman. Surviving in a dark world, she refuses to give up on life and challenges herself to start anew." She credited director Min Kyu-dong for shaping the character with feminist consciousness, describing her role as "the result of an expansion of feminist ideas embedded in director Min's consciousness" and "a new discovery of a character transcending gender and generational boundaries."
Bechdel Day 2025 will feature special talk sessions and free screenings of selected Bechdel Choice 10 films at KU Cinema in Gwangjin District, Seoul, throughout the weekend, providing audiences direct access to the groundbreaking content being celebrated.
