The Widow is the debut and only film of Korea’s first female director Park Nam-ok. She is renowned for a photograph showing her with a child on her back, which captures her dual role as a filmmaker and a mother, as she had to bring her child to the set due to the lack of childcare at the time. This image is reflected in the figure of Lee Shinja of The Widow, who struggles for her survival amid the fractured landscape of conservative ideologies after the war. The film follows the story of Lee Shinja, a widow who lost her husband in the Korean War and was left alone with a child, to meet a new partner. She is forced to choose between motherhood and love. Lee Shinja makes a rare choice in Korean cinema by opting for love over motherhood, but she is depicted as doomed to fail whichever path she chooses. Even though she were to choose motherhood, she would be unable to properly take care of her child due to work commitments. The film neither objectifies nor morally condemns the desires of women in harsh conditions of the time.(PARK Seho)